Kenny Dorham
August 30, 1924 – December 15, 1972
| Instrument | trumpet |
| Birthplace | Fairfield, TX |
Available Leadsheets
- Afrodisia - Kenny Dorham Latin (Samba)
- Baby Sis - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium up)
- Back Road - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- Blue Bossa - Kenny Dorham Latin (Bossa)
- Blue Ching - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- Blue Spring Shuffle - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- Blues For Jackie - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium up)
- Bombay - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- Brown's Town - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- D.C. Special - Kenny Dorham Swing (uptempo)
- Dead End - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium up)
- Dorham's Epitaph / Extension - Kenny Dorham Ballad
- Echo Of Spring - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- Escapade - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- Fair Weather - Kenny Dorham Ballad
- Fair Weather (vocal) - Kenny Dorham Ballad
- Fool's Fancy - Kenny Dorham & Bud Powell Swing (medium up)
- Horn Salute - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- It's No Time To Be Blue - Kenny Burrell & Larry Jackstien & Kenny Dorham Latin (Samba)
- Jung Fu - Kenny Dorham Even 8ths/Swing (medium up)
- K.D.'s Motion - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- Karioka - Kenny Dorham Swing/Latin (medium up)
- La Mesha - Kenny Dorham Ballad
- La Villa - Kenny Dorham Swing (uptempo)
- Lotus Blossom - Kenny Dorham Latin/swing (medium up)
- Lotus Flower - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium slow)
- Mexico City - Kenny Dorham Swing (uptempo)
- Minor's Holiday - Kenny Dorham Swing (uptempo)
- Monaco - Kenny Dorham Latin/swing (medium)
- Night Watch - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- No End - Kenny Dorham Latin (medium)
- None Shall Wander - Kenny Dorham Latin 12/8 (medium)
- Oscar for Oscar - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium up)
- Pedro's Time - Kenny Dorham Latin/swing (medium)
- Philly Twist - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium up)
- Prince Albert - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium)
- Sao Paulo - Kenny Dorham Latin (Funky)
- Sign Off - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium up)
- Speculate - Kenny Dorham Swing (uptempo)
- Spring Cannon - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium up)
- Stage West - Kenny Dorham Swing (uptempo)
- Straight Ahead - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium up)
- There's No End - Kenny Dorham & Rachel Gould Latin (medium slow)
- Thin Man - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium up)
- Tonica - Kenny Dorham Swing (slow)
- Una Mas - Kenny Dorham Latin (Mambo)
- Windmill - Kenny Dorham Swing (medium up)
August 30, 2024, was Kenny Dorham's 100th birthday: jazzleadsheets.com has added 10 new K.D. compositions: K.D.News! Check them out! Kenny was inducted into the Lincoln Center Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame On October 16, 2024, with a Tribute Concert at Dizzy's Club. Four of Kenny's daughters were in attendance.
Trumpeter/composer Kenny Dorham was very much on the jazz scene from the mid-1940s through most of the 1960s. He worked and recorded with all the major figures in the modern jazz movement, which includes the legendary Billy Eckstine big band, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Max Roach as well as Kenny Clarke, Sonny Stitt, Fats Navarro, J.J. Johnson and many other giants of that period.
Dorham, known as K.D., continued in the '50s and '60s to play and record with the who's who of the hard bop era as well, developing important associations with Hank Mobley, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson and so many more. Always kept in the highest regard by the musicians he worked with, Kenny never got the public attention that he deserved. Jackie McLean says it very well: "Kenny during his whole lifetime never got the accolades and never got the roses that he should have received for all that he gave us."
jazzleadsheets.com has a very special project featuring Kenny's music: The K.D. Challenge—check it out!
A personal note from Don Sickler: K.D. wasn't just a great individual trumpet stylist who developed his own sound and linear harmonic language (listen to Kenny's "turnbacks"—how he gets to the end of the harmonic progression—and you'll certainly know what I'm talking about). He was also a great composer and arranger who created new rhythm section textures, often giving each rhythm section player his own distinctive part. I can see that one of my long term goals is going to be fulfilled with jazzleadsheets.com: it's given me the opportunity to help you study Kenny Dorham's music in depth. Check out our progress so far, on "The K.D. Challenge."
Learn more about Kenny's life by reading Kahron Spearman's article in the Austin Chronicle.