Kenny Burrell

San Diego, late ’80s

Kenneth Burrell was born in Detroit, Michigan, where he started playing the guitar in his preteens with influenced by Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian, among others.

He made his first recordings in 1951 as a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s sextet while attending Wayne State University and went on to tour with Oscar Peterson in 1955 before moving to New York the following year. Burrell’s best known recorded works include his 1963 solo LP “Midnight Blue” and the 1965 collaborative album with Jimmy Smith, “Organ Grinder Swing.” During the 1970s Kenny Burrell began giving seminars on the music of Duke Ellington and as of 1996 has served as Director of Jazz Studies at UCLA, where he currently teaches a course titled “Ellingtonia.”

Here he gives us a beautiful rendition of Miles Davis’ “All Blues”, accompanied by Bob Magnusson, bass, and Sherman Ferguson, drums.