Mart Kenney
BornToronto, Ontario, Canada
BiographyCanadian jazz musician and big band leader Mart Kenney was born Herbert Martin Kenney on 7 March 1910 in Toronto, Ontario. He began playing both clarinet and saxophone at an early age, performing throughout Toronto and, later, Vancouver, British Columbia. He formed his first and most well-known dance band, The Western Gentlemen, in 1931 with Glen Griffith (trumpet, piano), Jack Hemmings (trumpet), Bert Lister (saxophone), Hec MacCallum (bass), and, later, Ed Emel (percussion) and Art Hallman (saxophone, vocals, piano). The group debuted on CJOR radio in 1934 and began a three-year seasonal performance contract at the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park in southern Alberta. Airplay on CBC radio throughout 1934 led to cross-Canada tours with regular performances at Canadian Pacific Railway hotels including Vancouver’s Hotel Vancouver and Toronto’s Royal York Hotel. A recording contract with RCA emerged in 1938, having produced approximately twenty-five 78s by 1951. The number of musicians in the group, which had relocated in 1940 to Toronto and come to be known simply as Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen, varied over the following years, expanding at its largest to 30 members. Although their popularity remained centered in Canada, broadcasts of their recordings were picked up by CBS and NBC in the United States and by the BBC in the United Kingdom. Kenney shifted into retirement in 1969, settling in Mission, British Columbia. Although his group was no longer active during this time, Kenney himself continued to make guest appearances in the metro Vancouver area throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Among his awards and recognitions are the member of the Order of Canada (1980), and an honorary LLD from the University of Lethbridge (1985). Kenney passed away on 8 February 2006. The music of Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen was regarded as being neither too 'sweet’ nor 'swinging', leaving their greatest impact on the public during the war years. Their most successful release remains The West, a Nest, and You, Dear, which was recorded for RCA in 1938.
