Nigel Kennedy: English Chamber Orchestra
Nigel Kennedy was born in Brighton, England, and comes from a musical lineage. His grandfather was Lauri Kennedy, a British-born musician and principal cellist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra[1] who played with Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Arthur Rubinstein and others. His grandmother was Dorothy Kennedy, a pianist, who accompanied John McCormack and taught Enrico Caruso's children. Lauri and Dorothy settled in Australia where their son, the cellist John Kennedy, was born. He was principal cellist with Sir Thomas Beecham's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. John had a relationship with an English piano teacher, Scylla Stoner. John left Scylla (they were unmarried) to return to Australia. He did not know she was pregnant by him at the time, and for many years he was unaware of the existence of his son, Nigel Kennedy, whom he met for the first time when Nigel was 11.[2] Nigel Kennedy has about 30 close relatives in Australia, whom he visits whenever he tours Australia.[3]
A boy prodigy, as a 10-year-old Kennedy would pick out Fats Waller tunes on the piano after hearing his stepfather's jazz records.[4] A pupil at the Yehudi Menuhin School under Yehudi Menuhin himself, Kennedy later studied at the Juilliard School in New York under Dorothy DeLay.
Career
At the age of 16, Stéphane Grappelli invited Kennedy to appear with him at New York's Carnegie Hall, under the threat from his teachers at the Juilliard that it would ruin his classical career.[5] He made his recording debut in 1984 with the Elgar Violin Concerto, but most know Kennedy through the version of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons which he recorded in 1989 with the English Chamber Orchestra. The release sold over 2 million copies and earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the then best-selling classical work ever.[6] 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.[7] He has also performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti.
After numerous performances for The Prince's Trust, the Royal Variety Performance and private performances at St James Palace and Buckingham Palace, he released his biography Always Playing in 1991[8] He then took the controversial and highly publicised decision to withdraw completely from public performance, at which point he made the album Music In Color with Stephen Duffy. He made a triumphant return to the international concert platform to critical acclaim five years later.[7] 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.[7]
In 1999 Sony Classical released The Kennedy Experience, which featured improvisational recordings of Jimi Hendrix compositions. According to a BBC interview with Kennedy, the violinist stated that the 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".[9] 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 jazz label Blue Note Records. Other musicians on the album were the 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".[4] 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 Klezmer music with the Polish jazz band Kroke.
The Polish jazz band consists of musicians "who have been knocking around with Kennedy for five years. I ask how he selected them. As with most things in his life, what seems on the surface to be random turns out to be carefully considered. 'I met them all separately at jam sessions in the jazz club near where I live in Cracow,' he says. "I thought: that’s the drummer I want, that’s the bass player, and so on. They’ve all got their own projects.""[10]
On 27 November 2000, Kennedy joined rock group The Who at the Royal Albert Hall to play the violin solo on the classic song "Baba O'Riley", released three years latter on the album Live at the Royal Albert Hall. 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.
Kennedy recently appointed a new manager, Terri Robson (who was previously Luciano Pavarotti's manager and Director of Pavarotti's UK recording label, Decca)[citation needed], and returned to the Proms to enormous acclaim[citation needed] after an absence of 21 years, performing Elgar's Violin Concerto and a late-night Prom with the Nigel Kennedy Quintet.
He also plays the viola, and has recorded Sir William Walton's Viola Concerto.[11]
Image
Kennedy's carefully maintained loutish persona is seen by some as abrasive and limiting to his career[citation needed], 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."[12][13] Many respected musicians though, hold him in high esteem.[citation needed]
Until 2006 he had expressed his intention of not appearing on the classical London concert scene with a London orchestra, seen by some as arrogance[citation needed]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."[5] This changed with his 2008 Proms appearance.
Kennedy expresses concern[14] 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.
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.[5][4][15][16]
Away from his musical career, Kennedy jogs and is a passionate English Premiership football club Aston Villa supporter. As well as being a season ticket holder he can frequently be seen at away matches sitting with fans. Kennedy frequently displays his love for the club as can be seen in all his public appearances, which will see him wearing replica shirts or scarves. He once painted his then Jaguar motor car in their colours, claret & blue - a treatment also meted out to various other possessions such as his electric violin).
Whilst living and recording in Poland he took an active interest in Cracovia, in whose 100th anniversary 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.[17]
On 18 April 2008, Kennedy appeared on ITV lunchtime show Loose Women to promote his new album.
Politics
Kennedy recently supported David Davis' campaign when he quit his shadow home secretary post to force a by election in protest over proposals to allow terrorist suspects to be locked up for 42 days without charge. The musician (who has Jewish and Irish roots) is a vocal opponent of Israel's policies in the West Bank, and, in the summer of 2007, he told a Ha'aretz reporter:
"I was shocked to see these walls, it's a new apartheid, barbaric behaviour: 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."[18]
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