Connie Kay


Conrad Henry Kirnon known professionally as Connie Kay, was an American jazz and R&B drummer, who was a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Biography

Self-taught on drums, Kay began performing in Los Angeles in the mid-1940s. His drumming is recorded in The Hunt, the recording of a famous Los Angeles jam session featuring the dueling tenors of Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray on July 6, 1947. He recorded with Lester Young's quintet from 1949 to 1955 and with Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis.
Kay did R&B sessions for Atlantic Records in the early to mid-1950s, and he was featured on hit records such as "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Big Joe Turner and Ruth Brown's "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean".
Kay joined the Modern Jazz Quartet in 1955, replacing original drummer Kenny Clarke. He remained through the group's dissolution in 1974 and occasional reunions into the 1990s. In addition to his MJQ compatriots, he had an enduring partnership with cool jazz altoist Paul Desmond through the first half of the 1960s. He played drums on several of Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison's albums: Astral Weeks, one song on Saint Dominic's Preview, and four songs on Tupelo Honey.
Kay was known for incorporating percussion instruments alongside his drum kit, such as timpani, small cymbals, triangle, bell tree, and darbukas, the latter referred to as "exotic-looking" drums in a 2006 article.
In 1989, Kay received an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music.
Kay had a stroke in 1992, but recovered enough to resume performing. He died of cardiac arrest in Manhattan in 1994 at the age of 67. He also played with Benny Goodman's Orchestra at the Carnegie Hall 40th Anniversary Concert on January 17, 1978. Kay never recorded as a session leader.

Discography

With the [Modern Jazz Quartet]

The Modern Jazz Quartet at the Music Inn Volume 1 One Never Knows Patterns The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays for Lovers Concorde Fontessa included "Versailles"The Modern [Jazz Quartet Plays No Sun in Venice] The Modern Jazz Quartet The Modern Jazz Quartet and the Oscar Peterson Trio at the Opera House The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn Volume 2 Music from Odds Against Tomorrow Pyramid European Concert Dedicated to Connie The Modern Jazz Quartet & Orchestra Third Stream Music The Comedy Lonely Woman A Quartet is a Quartet is a Quartet Collaboration – with Laurindo AlmeidaThe Modern Jazz Quartet Plays George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess Jazz Dialogue with the All-Star Jazz BandConcert in Japan '66 Blues at Carnegie Hall Place Vendôme – with The Swingle SingersUnder the Jasmin Tree Space Plastic Dreams The Only Recorded Performance of Paul Desmond With The Modern Jazz Quartet – with Paul DesmondThe Legendary Profile In Memoriam Blues on Bach The Last Concert Reunion at Budokan 1981 Together Again: Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival '82 Echoes Topsy: This One's for Basie Three Windows For Ellington Rose of the Rio Grande MJQ & Friends: A 40th Anniversary Celebration A Night at the Opera

As sideman

With Cannonball AdderleyKnow What I Mean
With Chet BakerChet Baker's Holiday
With Ruth BrownRuth Brown Miss Rhythm
With Miles DavisMiles Davis at Newport 1955–1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4
With Paul DesmondFirst Place Again Desmond Blue Two of a Mind with Gerry MulliganTake Ten Bossa Antigua Glad To Be Unhappy Easy Living Pure Desmond
With Bill Evans & Bob BrookmeyerThe Ivory Hunters
With Dexter Gordon and Wardell GrayThe Hunt
With Coleman HawkinsDisorder at the Border
With Jimmy HeathSwamp Seed
With Scott HamiltonThe Grand Appearance
With Milt JacksonMilt Jackson Quartet Plenty, Plenty Soul Bean Bags with Coleman Hawkins Bags' Opus The Ballad Artistry of Milt Jackson Bags & Trane Vibrations Big Bags Invitation Statements For Someone I Love Jazz 'n' Samba In a New Setting I/We Had a Ball – 1 track
With John LewisThe Modern Jazz Society Presents a Concert of Contemporary Music Afternoon in Paris with Sacha DistelThe John Lewis Piano The Golden Striker The Wonderful World of Jazz Essence
With Jay McShann
With James MoodyThe Blues and Other Colors
With Van Morrison
With Joe NewmanThe Happy Cats
With Sonny Rollins
With Michel SardabyNight Cap
With Lucky ThompsonLucky Strikes
With Bobby TimmonsBorn to Be Blue!
With Randy Weston