Photo: Christian Plattner at English Wikipedia · Public domain · credits

Tier 2 · legacy legend

Kenny Davern

Person · male · United States · Huntington · born 1935 · died 2006 · recording since 1975

American clarinetist (1935–2006)

jazz

database database database database

YouTube Music

Also known as ケニー・ダヴァーン

Debut: 1975
Recording span: 31 years
Release groups: 28
Timeline events: 21
Wiki language versions: 6

Compare this artist Read the biography Jump to timeline

Timeline

21 events▣ Album 18◦ Birth 1★ Debut release 1† Death 1

1930s
1. 7 January 1935 · Birth
  Born 1935-01-07
  source: wikidata
1970s
1. 1975 · Debut release
  Debut release: Soprano Summit
  First documented Album in the MusicBrainz discography.
  source: musicbrainz
2. 1975 · Album
  Album: Soprano Summit
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
3. 1977 · Album
  Album: John & Joe
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
1980s
1. 1980 · Album
  Album: Trio Vol II
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
2. 1981 · Album
  Album: Ralph Sutton and the Jazzband
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
3. 1988 · Album
  Album: Mood Indigo
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
4. 1989 · Album
  Album: I'll See You in My Dreams
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
1990s
1. 1990 · Album
  Album: Summit Reunion
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
2. 1992 · Album
  Album: My Inspiration
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
3. 1994 · Album
  Album: Summit Reunion 1992
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
4. 1994 · Album
  Album: East Side, West Side
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
5. 1996 · Album
  Album: Kenny Davern And The Rhythm Men
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
6. 1997 · Album
  Album: Breezin' Along
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
7. 1998 · Album
  Album: Reunion at Arbors
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
8. 5 May 1998 · Album
  Album: Ralph Sutton & Kenny Davern
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
9. 1999 · Album
  Album: Smiles
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
2000s
1. 2000 · Album
  Album: You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet - Summit Reunion Plays Some Al Jolson Songs
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
2. 2001 · Album
  Album: A Night With Eddie Condon
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
3. 2001 · Album
  Album: Summit Reunion In Atlanta
  Album
  source: musicbrainz
4. 12 December 2006 · Death
  Died 2006
  source: wikidata

Biography

English biography582 words · 3 sectionssource: wikipedia-en · licence CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1361514950

Biography

John Kenneth Davern (January 7, 1935 – December 12, 2006) was an American jazz clarinetist.

Biography

He was born in Huntington, Long Island, to a family of mixed Jewish and Irish-Catholic ancestry. His mother's family originally came from Vienna, Austria, where his great-grandfather Alfred Roth had been a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian cavalry, the highest rank accessible to a Jew in the Habsburg Imperial army.
After hearing Pee Wee Russell the first time, he was convinced that he wanted to be a jazz musician, too; and at the age of 16 he joined the musician's union, first as a baritone saxophone player. In 1954 he joined Jack Teagarden's Band, and after only a few days with the band he made his first jazz recordings. Later on, he worked with bands led by Phil Napoleon and Pee Wee Erwin before joining the Dukes of Dixieland in 1962. The late 1960s found him freelancing with, among others, Red Allen, Ralph Sutton, Yank Lawson and his lifelong friend Dick Wellstood.
At this time, he had also taken up the soprano saxophone, and when a spontaneous coupling with fellow reedman Bob Wilber at Dick Gibson's Colorado Jazz Party turned out be a huge success, one of the most important jazz groups of the 1970s, Soprano Summit, was created. Co-led by Wilber and Davern, both switching between the clarinet and various saxophones, during the next five years Soprano Summit enjoyed a successful string of record dates and concerts. When the group disbanded in 1979, Davern devoted himself to solely playing clarinet, preferring trio formats with piano and drums. One such trio was as a member of the Hot Three with vibraphonist Don DeMicheal and pianist Art Hodes.
Davern's collaboration with Bob Wilber was revived in 1991, the new group being called Summit Reunion. Leading his own quartets since the 1990s, Davern preferred the guitar to the piano in his rhythm section, employing guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli, Howard Alden and James Chirillo. He also made several appearances to the Colorado Springs Invitational Jazz Party and performed with numerous international jazz musicians.
In 1997, he was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame at Rutgers University, and in 2001 he received an honorary doctorate of music at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. In addition to the jazz greats that inspired him, Kenny Davern indicated classical clarinetist David Weber, principal solo clarinetist with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, as his most important teacher.
Although playing mainly in traditional jazz and swing settings, his musical interests encompass a much broader range of styles. In 1978 he collaborated with avantgarde players Steve Lacy, Steve Swallow and Paul Motian on a free jazz-inspired album appropriately entitled Unexpected. In addition to his accomplishments in jazz, his ardour and knowledge of classical music was encyclopaedic, particularly of the work of conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Especially after concentrating exclusively on playing the clarinet, Kenny Davern called his own an unmatched mastery of the instrument. A full, rounded tone, especially "woody" in the lower chalumeau register, combined with highly personal tone inflections and the ability to hit notes far above the conventional range of the clarinet, made his sound immediately recognizable. In the late 1980s, The New York Times hailed him as "the finest jazz clarinetist playing today".
Davern died of a heart attack at his Sandia Park, New Mexico home.

As sideman

With Dick Wellstood

Dick Wellstood and His All Star Orchestra (Chiaroscuro, 1981)
With George Shearing

George Shearing in Dixieland (Concord, 1989)
With Roswell Rudd

Blown Bone (Philips, 1979)

Discography & profile

Normalised profile

Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.

Normalised profile metrics with percentile rank
Metric	Value	Percentile
Wikipedia language versions	6	38.9th
Spotify monthly listeners	—	no data
Release groups in DB	28	89.8th
Studio albums	19	96.2th
Awards recorded	0	0th
Timeline events	21	94.3th
Recording span (years)	31	68.2th
Genres	3	80.4th

Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.

Discography (28 release groups · 19 studio albums)

Albums · 19

Soprano Summit
1975 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 12 tracks · 42:18
A1Swing Parade3:08
A2Egyptian Fantasy4:12
A3Oh, Sister Ain't That Hot2:27
A4Stealin' Away5:12
A5Johnny Was There2:22
A6Penny Rag3:57
B1The Fish Vendor2:20
B2The Mooche4:49
B3Where Are We?2:10
B4Please Clarify2:58
B5Song Of Songs4:56
B6Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland3:47
John & Joe
1977 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 7 tracks · 41:39
A1Elsa's Dream6:28
A2Sweet Lorraine4:24
A3Mood Indigo5:37
A4If Dreams Come True7:02
B1Squeeze Me6:59
B2Candy4:56
B3Cottontail6:13
Trio Vol II
1980 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 7 tracks
A1St. Louis Blues
A2Am I Blue
A3All By Myself
B1Porter's Love Song
B2Old Fashioned Love
B3'Taint Nobody's Bizness
B4Half Pint
Ralph Sutton and the Jazzband
1981 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 4 tracks · 42:48
A1Struttin' With Some Barbecue10:01
A2Keeping Out of Mischief Now13:23
B1Ain't Misbehavin'10:20
B2Muskrat Ramble9:04
Mood Indigo
1988 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 8 tracks · 55:14
1Mood Indigo7:39
2Crazy Rhythm5:35
3Just Squeeze Me7:54
4Tin Roof Blues9:50
5Jeff's Blues5:41
6Embraceable You6:30
7Great Scott5:28
8If I Had You6:37
I'll See You in My Dreams
1989 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 10 tracks · 54:30
1Blue Lou5:10
2Sweet and Lovely3:47
3Liza6:02
4Pee Wee's Blue II7:00
5Riverboat Shuffle5:33
6Oh, Miss Hannah4:13
7My Melancholy Baby4:19
8Royal Garden Blues8:21
9(In My) Solitude4:53
10I'll See You in My Dreams5:12
Summit Reunion
1990 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 10 tracks · 1:09:53
1As Long As I Live5:40
2Love Come Back To Me6:12
3St. Louis Blues11:26
4Black And Blue4:59
5Should I6:31
6Palesteena3:09
7Old Fashioned Love6:20
8On The Sunny Side Of The Street7:51
9Limehouse Blues5:46
10Jazzspeak11:59
My Inspiration
1992 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 16 tracks · 1:02:20
1My Inspiration3:16
2It Had to Be You3:19
3Then You've Never Been Blue2:55
4Dogtown Blues3:31
5Georgia on My Mind3:20
6Farewell Blues5:59
7Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?4:07
8Spreadin' Knowledge Around5:19
9What's New?3:53
10She's Funny That Way3:08
11Should I?3:18
12Summertime4:13
13I'm Confessin'3:41
14Travelin' All Alone4:14
15Sweet Lorraine4:17
16Embraceable You3:50
Summit Reunion 1992
1994 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 10 tracks · 1:10:43
1Oh! Lady Be Good7:37
2Apex Blues11:17
3Love Theme From Picnic/Moonglow6:04
4I'm Sorry Dear5:57
5Love Me Or Leave Me9:44
6New Orleans6:16
7Chinatown7:15
8Solitude6:19
9My Blue Heaven4:53
10My Mother's Eyes5:21
East Side, West Side
1994 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 10 tracks · 57:20
1There'll Be Some Changes Made8:16
2Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams6:08
3Delta Bound3:45
4Sidewalks of New York3:17
5Am I Blue?6:35
6There's Yes! Yes! in Your Eyes5:13
7Always5:26
8I'm Sorry I Made You Cry7:47
9Please Be Kind4:25
10Sugar6:28
Kenny Davern And The Rhythm Men
1996 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 8 tracks · 59:30
1That Rhythm Man8:07
2Out Of Nowhere9:27
3Three Little Words7:05
4Say It Isn't So6:20
5Cherry7:00
6How Come You Do Me Like You Do?6:56
7You're Lucky To Me6:54
8Lullaby Of The Leaves7:41
Breezin' Along
1997 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 10 tracks · 1:06:24
1Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down6:11
2Jazz Me Blues5:46
3Rose Room8:58
4Dark Eyes7:48
5Baby, Won't You Please Come Home6:06
6My Honey's Lovin' Arms7:02
7I Surrender Dear4:21
8Exactly Like You6:28
9My Mama Socks Me6:25
10Breezin' Along With The Breeze7:19
Reunion at Arbors
1998 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 9 tracks · 56:34
1Cherry9:35
2Sentimental Journey5:57
3Who's Sorry Now8:00
4I Want a Little Girl4:42
5Sheik of Araby6:26
6Dear Sidney4:19
7Sometimes I'm Happy4:16
8I'm Confessin' That I Love You8:25
9Arbors Stomp4:54
Ralph Sutton & Kenny Davern
1998 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 15 tracks
1That's A-Plenty
2Old Fashioned Love
3Jazz Me Blues
4Am I Blue
5St. Louis Blues
6Black and Blue
7Take Me to the Land of Jazz
8All by Myself
9My Honey's Lovin' Arms
10'Taint Nobody's Bizness If I Do
11My Daddy Rocks Me
12I Would Do Most Anything for You
13Sweet Lorraine
14Memphis Blues
15A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid
Smiles
1999 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 8 tracks · 1:00:11
1Palesteena7:16
2Sweet Lorraine6:46
3Bernie's Tune7:00
4Summertime8:04
5That Da Da Strain6:24
6Apex Blues8:06
7I Must Have That Man7:29
8Smiles9:06
You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet - Summit Reunion Plays Some Al Jolson Songs
2000 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 14 tracks · 57:59
1Baby Face4:10
2Carolina In The Morning4:47
3Chinatown, My Chinatown4:20
4Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody4:09
5Swanee3:41
6After You've Gone3:47
7The Anniversary Song6:02
8When The Red, Red Robin Comes, Bob, Bobbin' Along3:35
9You Made Me Love You4:28
10April Showers3:57
11Rose Of Washington Square3:48
12Avalon6:50
13(Back Home In) Indiana4:25
14California, Here I Come
A Night With Eddie Condon
2001 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 12 tracks · 1:12:31
1At The Jazz Band Ball7:31
2Rosetta4:07
3Royal Garden Blues6:51
4Ain't Misbehavin'5:55
5Jazz Me Blues7:28
6Rose Of Washington Square3:34
7Muskrat Ramble4:56
8I Can't Get Started4:57
9China Boy6:45
10Rose Room7:28
11That's A’Plenty5:22
12St. Louis Blues7:37
Summit Reunion In Atlanta
2001 · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 10 tracks · 1:10:52
1I Found A New Baby6:24
2If I Had You7:35
3Mama's Gone Goodbye7:12
4Wabash Blues7:18
5Love Me Or Leave Me7:42
6Loveless Love8:48
7Song Of The Wanderer8:17
8Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me4:37
9Someday Sweetheart5:54
10Diga Diga Doo7:05
Stretchin' Out
— · studio album
Search Spotify Search YouTube Music
Tracklist · 6 tracks
1The Man I Love
2Summertime
3Lover, Come Back To Me
4Love Me Or Leave Me
5(There Is) No Greater Love
6Chicago Rhythm

Album · 9

Album release groups, by first release date
Year	Title	Notes	First release
1979	The Hot ThreeSearch Spotify Search YouTube Music Tracklist · 10 tracks · 42:42 A1Fidgety Feet5:00 A2Chimes Blues4:44 A3Shim-Me Sha-Wabble3:50 A4Liberty Inn Drag4:48 A5Some Of These Days3:31 B1Ballin' The Jack3:45 B2See See Rider4:14 B3It Don't Mean A Thing5:30 B4Tennessee Waltz4:15 B5My Blue Heaven3:05	Live	1979
1992	Soprano Summit In ConcertSearch Spotify Search YouTube Music Tracklist · 9 tracks · 46:00 1Stompy Jones7:52 2The Grapes Are Ready8:33 3Sequin Gown1:03 4Doin' the New Low Down5:12 5The Golden Rooster4:29 6Moxie2:48 7Brother, Can You Spare a Dime2:34 8All by Myself3:50 9Swing That Music9:39	Live	1992
1992	Dick Wellstood & His All-Star Orchestra Featuring Kenny Davern - Plus The Blue ThreeSearch Spotify Search YouTube Music Tracklist · 17 tracks · 1:18:21 1Fast As A Bastard2:09 2Winin' Boy5:18 3Wild Man Blues5:01 4Georgia On My Mind5:52 5Smiles3:08 6Sweet Substitute5:11 7Once In Awhile4:09 8Liza3:48 9Original Dixieland One Step3:40 10Don't You Leave Me Here4:37 11Tiger Rag3:36 12Indiana5:25 13Sweet Georgia Brown4:19 14Blue Monk6:43 15Joshua4:55 16Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone5:50 17Oh, Peter4:40	Compilation	1992
1995	Never In A Million Years...Search Spotify Search YouTube Music Tracklist · 13 tracks · 1:03:15 1Oh, Lady Be Good4:59 2Travelin' All Alone6:28 3Don't Get Around Much Any More7:02 4Wellstood Remarks1:15 5If Dreams Come True4:55 6Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone7:16 7Davern Remarks1:06 8Mood Indigo3:46 9On The Sunny Side Of The Streer6:26 10Wellstood Remarks1:10 11The Mooche / Birmingham Breakdown6:45 12Summertime6:45 13Rosetta5:22	Live	1995
1998	Spanish Eyes - Live At The 1995 Floating Jazz FestivalSearch Spotify Search YouTube Music Tracklist · 9 tracks · 1:15:35 1Opening Remarks0:27 2Elsa's Dream9:27 3Flip's Dido10:58 4Spanish Eyes10:32 5Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone6:36 6Royal Garden Blues7:58 7Miki's Dream10:42 8All Of Me6:18 9Lover Come Back To Me12:37	Live	1998
1999	TravelingSearch Spotify Search YouTube Music Tracklist · 9 tracks · 1:13:03 1There’ll Be Some Changes Made9:33 2Limehouse Blues8:52 3Cherry10:24 4Traveling All Alone7:01 5Yellow Dog Blues11:35 6Dear Sidney4:32 7All by Myself8:07 8Mood Indigo3:57 9Rosetta9:02	Live	1999
1999	Live in EnglandSearch Spotify Search YouTube Music Tracklist · 10 tracks 1Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland 2The Mooche 3Ole Miss 4Oriental Strut 5Stealin' Away 6Oh, Sister Ain't That Hot 7Old Stack O' Lee Blues 8Swing '39 9I Had It, But It's All Gone Now 10Grenadilla Stomp	Live	1999
2003	Live In Concert, 1974Search Spotify Search YouTube Music Tracklist · 14 tracks · 1:08:11 1Royal Garden Blues6:40 2Wild Man Blues3:42 3Rosetta5:09 4Medley:Someday You'll Be Sorry/When Did You Leave Heaven?2:28 5Sweet Georgia Brown3:53 6Black And Tan Fantasy4:16 7(Back Home Again In) Indiana7:57 8Dear Old Southland3:53 9The Man I Love3:21 10Savoy Blues8:44 11Fingerbuster2:33 12Buddy Bolden's Blues2:39 13Oh Sister! Ain't That Hot?3:59 14Love Is Just Around The Corner8:57	Live	2003
2013	Tomas Örnberg's Blue Five Featuring Kenny DavernSearch Spotify Search YouTube Music Tracklist · 13 tracks · 45:41 1New Orleans Stomp3:00 2Black Beauty4:42 3Too Busy (take one)3:47 4Rocky Mountain Blues3:50 5’Tain’t Nobody’s Bizeness If I Do2:48 6Sweet Substitute3:51 7Too Busy (take Two)3:00 8At the Christmas Ball3:48 9Rent Party Blues3:54 10Bienville Blues3:14 11Skid-Dat-De-Dat3:18 12Let’s Sow Wild Oat2:03 13Mood Indigo4:26	Compilation	2013

Stats & PK

Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Kenny Davern head-to-head →

Kenny Davern metrics with percentile rank among published artists
Metric	Value	Percentile
Wikipedia language versions	6	38.9th
Spotify monthly listeners	—	no data
Release groups in DB	28	89.8th
Studio albums	19	96.2th
Awards recorded	0	0th
Timeline events	21	94.3th
Recording span (years)	31	68.2th
Genres	3	80.4th

Awards & honours

No awards recorded

No major awards are stored for this artist yet.

Browse the best-documented artists

Line-up

Band line-up and band memberships with dates
Name	From	To	Role
Kenny Davern Quartet(band)	—	present	clarinet,eponymous,original
Kenny Davern Trio(band)	—	present
Soprano Summit(band)	—	present
Summit Reunion(band)	—	present
Kenny Davern Big Three(band)	—	present	clarinet

Where this record comes from

portrait—Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kenny_Davern.jpg
aliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/d941537c-9ae9-425c-bb05-be7ac6fb4e2d
discography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/d941537c-9ae9-425c-bb05-be7ac6fb4e2d
core—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1650743
genre—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1650743
seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Davern
biography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Davern

Why this artist is in the database

List of jazz musicians

Tier rule: genre canon: jazz
Image: Christian Plattner at English Wikipedia · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata: Q1650743 · MusicBrainz: d941537c-9ae9-425c-bb05-be7ac6fb4e2d

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Timeline

1930s

Born 1935-01-07

1970s

Debut release: Soprano Summit

Album: Soprano Summit

Album: John & Joe

1980s

Album: Trio Vol II

Album: Ralph Sutton and the Jazzband

Album: Mood Indigo

Album: I'll See You in My Dreams

1990s

Album: Summit Reunion

Album: My Inspiration

Album: Summit Reunion 1992

Album: East Side, West Side

Album: Kenny Davern And The Rhythm Men

Album: Breezin' Along

Album: Reunion at Arbors

Album: Ralph Sutton & Kenny Davern

Album: Smiles

2000s

Album: You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet - Summit Reunion Plays Some Al Jolson Songs

Album: A Night With Eddie Condon

Album: Summit Reunion In Atlanta

Died 2006

Biography

Biography

Biography

As sideman

Discography & profile

Normalised profile

Discography (28 release groups · 19 studio albums)

Albums · 19

Album · 9

Stats & PK

Awards & honours

Line-up

Where this record comes from

Why this artist is in the database

Similar artists

Lamont Dozier

Phyllis Hyman

Patti Austin

Dickey Betts

The J.B.'s

Jessye Norman

Bette Midler

Sam Lay