Ken Skinner, leader and founder of the jazzmongers!, was born in Montreal Quebec on June 28, 1962 into a very musical family. Ken's father Kenny Sr. was a jazz pianist in Montreal, Quebec and was quite well known in the area having played with such legends of Canadian jazz like Nelson Symonds, Norm Villeneuve, Charlie Biddle, Doug Richardson and Stu Losby. Kenny Sr. is listed in the "Who's Who of jazz in Montreal" by John Gilmore, and even backed up cats at after hours clubs like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett in his heyday.
Kenny Sr. was also connected to the Peterson family through stints playing in Chuck Peterson's band. Oscar married one of Kenny's cousins and hanging out with Oliver Jones and Joe Sealy in the late fifties and early sixties was just par for the course. Kenny Sr. was so well respected and liked by other musicians that Miles Davis even took time out from his busy touring schedule and sparred a couple of rounds with Kenny Sr., also a huge boxing student.
As the story goes Miles phoned up the house to set it up and said "This is Miles Davis is Kenny there?" and Ken's mother answered back, "yeah right, and I'm Ella Fitzgerald!" and she hung up. Miles called back and said "I know you're not Ella, because I know where Ella is! Now let me speak to Kenny!
It was the trio recordings of Oscar Peterson that ruled in those days, and the trio most available around the house consisted of Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, bass and drums. Ken junior was taken to calling Oscar Peterson his "Uncle Pete" and believed that to be the case until he was twelve years old. The fact is that Oscar's brother Chuck was his godfather until his death in 1984, and Daisy Sweeney (Oscar's sister) his piano teacher. When Ken was six years old his father took him to see Oscar in person. This was in 1968 not long after the trio had changed over to include Sam Jones and Louis Hayes who had been working with Julian "Cannonball" Adderly. The young Kenneth was dissappointed in not getting to see Ray and Ed, but quite thrilled to be backstage with Oscar when his father took him along. Ken was so thrilled with Oscar that his mother couldn't get him to come out and meet Duke, Dizzy or Ella. Naturally, when you wind up with the same piano teacher that Oscar, Oliver Jones and Joe Sealy have had, you must pick up certain traditions just by osmosis. Kenny Sr. introduced his son to Horace Silver at the age of six, and Ken jr. had a new hero. This image of Horace the composer is still present, and during the Montreal Jazz festival of 1996 Ken finally got to meet his hero and introduced him to his father.
Ken picked up the guitar during his youth after his mother had moved he and his brother Norman (named after drummer Norman Marshall Villeneuve) to Trenton, Ontario. In characteristic fashion he began breaking his immidiate mold. Instead of playing rock guitar like so many of his peers at the time, Ken found himself facinated with the music of Bach and in particular the "Bouree in E minor". Ken's subsequent "Guitar Suite no.1" went on to win many competitions and awards. So Ken has been an award winning composer since the age of 14, and still considers composition to be his forte. The fact that Maroon was a video and in a feature film before release of the CD is an indication of the kind of attention Ken can generate with his compositional style in any idiom.
Since then Ken has considered himself a composer and through the activities at Village Jazz, Ken can boast having compositions in two videos on the BRAVO! network due to air in October of 1997, two CD's by November, 1997 and two of his compositions are in "Pitch", the first Canadian feature length film to boast Al Pacino in the lineup. The two videos, Maroon and Jombo Memsahb (from the CD Maroon and Stirling Silver)led to Maroon being featured in the film "Johnny Greyeyes". Maroon also found its way onto a compilation disc called "The Kin of Kensington" which celebrates artists with a connection to Kensington Market in Toronto. It is a rare performance from the large band session that took place at the CBC Glenn Gould studio in Toronto November 14, 1997.
Ken's compositions have found a new life in the hands of Chantal Aston whose beautiful rendering of Tell Me Lies" has the markings of a vocal ballad classic. Also arranger Buddy Aquilina in his current group who also arranged some of Ken's compositions for the sextet of Norman Marshall Villeneuve.
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