Nigel Kennedy
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| Nigel Kennedy | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 28, 1956  Brighton, England |
| Genre(s) | Classical |
| Occupation(s) | Violinist |
| Instrument(s) | Violin |
| Years active | 1966-present |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Violin Guarneri del Gesu, 'La Fonte' c.1735, Stradivari, Scott Cao, Johannes Finkel bow, Violectra electric violin |
|
Nigel Kennedy (born December 28, 1956 in Brighton, England) is a violinist and violist.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
A boy prodigy, as a 10-year-old Kennedy would pick out Fats Waller tunes on the piano after hearing his stepfather's trad-jazz records.[1] A pupil at the Yehudi Menuhin School under Yehudi Menuhin himself, Kennedy later studied at the Juilliard School in New York under Dorothy DeLay.
[edit] Career
Kennedy has played a part in making classical music popular, particularly among young people. He has also performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti.
Aged 16, Stéphane Grappelli invited the prodigy to appear alongside him at New York's Carnegie Hall, under the threat from his teachers at the Juilliard that it would ruin his classical career.[2] He made his recording debut in 1984 with the Elgar Violin Concerto, but most know Kennedy through his interpretation of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" recorded in 1989, sold over 2 million copies and earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the then best-selling classical work of all time.[3] The album remained top of the UK classical charts for over a year with sales equivalent to one copy sold every 30 seconds of every day.[4]
After numerous performances including The Princes Trust, the Royal Variety Performance and private performances at St James Palace and Buckingham Palace, he released his biography "Always Playing" in 1991[5] He then took the controversial and highly publicised decision to withdraw completely from public performance, but made a triumphant return to the international concert platform to critical acclaim five years later.[4] In 1997, Kennedy received an award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music at the BRIT Awards, and in 2001 received the 'Male Artist of the Year' award.[4]
In 1999 Sony Classical released a recording entitled The Kennedy Experience, which featured improvisational recordings of Jimi Hendrix compositions. According to a BBC interview with Kennedy, the violinist stated that this recording is "an album of music inspired by Jimi Hendrix. It is an extended instrumental work in six movements - each movement a classical interpretation of a Hendrix song."[6] On the recording, Kennedy is accompanied by seven other musicians, and the lineup includes two cellos, an oboe, two guitars, a Dobro, flute, and double bass. With cellist Lynn Harrell, he has recorded an album of duets.
In late 2005, Kennedy went to New York to record his first proper jazz album for the traditional jazz and bebop label Blue Note Records. Kennedy's recording musicians on the album included Miles Davis alumnus Ron Carter on double bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums; and saxophonist Joe Lovano. Kennedy has since stated that "from now on, at least 50 per cent of my endeavour is going to be in the jazz field."[1] He has also recorded The Doors Concerto (with Jaz Coleman), a violin based orchestral version of many Doors songs, including Strange Days, LA Woman, The End, and Riders On The Storm. He has recently been exploring Polish music with the Polish jazz band Kroke.
On November 27, 2000, Kennedy joined rock group The Who at the Royal Albert Hall to play the violin solo on the classic song Baba O'Riley. The recording can be found on the album Live at the Royal Albert Hall, which was released three years later. Kennedy has played on several tracks by British singer/songwriter Kate Bush, who was a guest on Kennedy's episode of This Is Your Life.
[edit] Image
Kennedy's carefully maintained loutish persona is seen by some as abrasive and limiting to his career, citing as an example his use of a 'mockney' accent instead of the received pronunciation he had when he was interviewed as a child in 1964 on the BBC's Town and Around.
Kennedy was attacked for his approach to classical music by John Drummond in 1991, calling him "a Liberace for the Nineties" and criticised his "ludicrous clothes and grotesque, self-invented accent."[7][8] Many respected musicians though, hold him in high esteem.
He presently refuses to appear on the classical London concert scene with a London orchestra, seen by some as arrogance and stated by Kennedy in terms of frustrated perfectionism: "It all comes down to the amount of rehearsal you get, or don't get, in this country. I insist on three or four sessions prior to a concert, and orchestral administrators won't accommodate that. If I didn't care about getting it right I could do three concerts in the same amount of time and earn three times the money. But you can't do something properly in less time than it takes."[2]
Kennedy expresses concern[cite this quote] for the immediate appeal of live performance, and often records entire works or movements in single 'takes' to preserve this sense in his recordings. He also introduces improvisatory elements in his performances, as in his Jimi Hendrix-inspired cadenza to the Beethoven violin concerto and his jazz and fusion recordings.
[edit] Personal life
When not touring, Kennedy divides his time between residences in Malvern, Worcestershire (where his ex-partner and son Sark live); and London and Kraków where he lives with his Polish second wife, Agnieszka.[2][1][9]
Away from his musical career, Kennedy jogs and is a supporter of English Premiership football club Aston Villa (in whose colours he once painted his Jaguar motor car), and Cracovia, in whose 100th anniversary in club replica kit he appeared.
On 24 October 2006, Kennedy broke his arm in a cycling accident, confirmed in an interview on BBC Radio 3 on 20 April 2007.[10]
On 18 April 2008, Kennedy appeared on ITV lunchtime show Loose Women to promote his new album.
[edit] Politics
Kennedy is boycotting the country of Israel. In the summer of 2007, he told a Ha'aretz reporter:
"I was shocked to see these walls, it's a new apartheid, barbaric behavior: How can you impose such a collective punishment and separate people? After all, we are all living on the same planet. It seems to me the world should have already learned from what happened in South Africa. And a country that hasn't learned should be boycotted, so that's why I don't perform in your country."[11]
[edit] Discography
| Year | Album | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | A Very Nice Album | Nigel Kennedy Quintet (Nigel Kennedy, electric violin; Adam Kowalewski, bass; Paweł Dobrowolski, drums; Tomasz Grzegorski, tenor sax; Piotr Wyleżoł, piano) with vocals by Xantoné Blacq; Sylwia Wójcik, cello; Suzy Willison-Kawalec, harp; |
| Beethoven & Mozart Violin Concertos | Polish Chamber Orchestra | |
| 2007 | Polish Spirit | Polish Chamber Orchestra, Jacek Kaspszyk |
| The Platinum Collection | ||
| 2006 | The Bluenote Sessions | |
| Kennedy, Live at La Citadelle (DVD) | Polish Chamber Orchestra | |
| Inner Thoughts | ||
| Nigel Kennedy Plays Bach | Irish Chamber Orchestra | |
| 2005 | Legend: Beethoven and Bruch (CD+DVD) | NDR Symphony Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt / English Chamber Orchestra, Jeffrey Tate |
| 2004 | Vivaldi II | Berliner Philharmoniker |
| 2003 | Vivaldi | Berliner Philharmoniker |
| East Meets East | with Kroke | |
| 2002 | Greatest Hits | |
| 2000 | Kennedy Plays Bach | (as Kennedy) |
| The Doors Concerto | (as Kennedy) | |
| Duos for Violin & Cello | as Kennedy with Lynn Harrell | |
| 1999 | Classic Kennedy | (as Kennedy) |
| 1999 | The Kennedy Experience | (as Kennedy) |
| 1998 | Kreisler | (as Kennedy) |
| 1997 | Elgar & Vaughan Williams | (as Kennedy), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle |
| 1996 | Kafka | |
| 1993 | Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto | London Philharmonic Orchestra, Okko Kamu |
| 1992 | Beethoven: Violin Concerto | NDR Symphony Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt |
| Sibelius: Violin Concerto / Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto | City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle / London Philharmonic Orchestra, Okko Kamu | |
| 1991 | Brahms: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 | London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt |
| 1989 | Vivaldi: The Four Seasons | English Chamber Orchestra |
| 1988 | Sibelius: Violin Concerto | City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle |
| Bruch, Schubert & Mendelssohn | English Chamber Orchestra, Jeffrey Tate | |
| 1987 | Let Loose | |
| Walton: Viola Concerto | City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle | |
| 1986 | Bartók & Duke Ellington | with Alec Dankworth |
| Tchaikovsky & Chausson | ||
| 1984 | Elgar: Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61 | London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley |
| Salut d'Amour & Other Elgar Favourites | ||
| Nigel Kennedy Plays Jazz |
[edit] Instruments
Nigel Kennedy has owned or used violins by:
- Guarneri del Gesu, 'La Fonte' c.1735;
- Stradivari;
- Scott Cao;
- Johannes Finkel bow
- Violectra electric violin
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Nigel Kennedy: All jazzed up The Independent - 5 December, 2007
- ^ a b c 'If you need a pillock, call me' Guardian Arts - September 29, 2006
- ^ Not quite Vivaldi: Nigel Kennedy remembers Hendrix CNN.com - August 23, 1999
- ^ a b c "We may play dead composers' works, but we don't have to look as if we're still at the funeral." - Nigel Kennedy ClassicFM
- ^ Always Playing - Nigel Kennedy Pub - Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1 Jan 1991. ISBN: 0-2978-1209-2
- ^ Interview with Nigel Kennedy on his album of Jimi Hendrix compositions from the BBC News website
- ^ Nigel Kennedy: All jazzed up The Independent - 2 April 2007
- ^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4153/is_20020926/ai_n12015106
- ^ Nigel Kennedy tries less spit, more Polish The Times - October 26, 2007
- ^ http://www.musicalamerica.com/news/newsstory.cfm?archived=0&storyid=14824&categoryid=2&cookies=1 (registration required)
- ^ "First violin / Prelude to dialogue". Noam Ben Zeev . Ha'aretz, December 24, 2007.
[edit] External links
- www.nigelkennedy.com [The original, since 1995, (un)official fan club. (www.nigelkennedy.com)]
- Kennedy's discography at EMI Classics
- The Kennedy Experience at Sony Classical
- Nigel Kennedy page (nigelkennedyonline.com), an unofficial fansite
