Kenwood Dennard

Kenwood Marshall Dennard (born March 1, 1956, New York City) is an American jazz drummer and retired professor from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.

Dennard learned piano as a child and took up drumming at nine years of age. He attended the Manhattan School of Music from 1972 to 1973 and Berklee College of Music from 1973 to 1976. Later in the decade he worked with Dizzy Gillespie, created the famous jazz fusion record Joyous Lake with Pat Martino, High Life and recorded the progressive rock record Livestock with Brand X. He played with Martino again in the late 1980s and with The Manhattan Transfer, Dianne Reeves, Jaco Pastorius, Lew Soloff, Bob Moses, and Stanley Jordan during that decade.

In the 1990s he worked with Miles Davis, Maceo Parker, Quincy Jones, and Howard Johnson. He also led his own ensembles, including Just Advance, the Meta-Funk All Stars, and Quintessence; his sidemen have included Victor Bailey, Dave Bargeron, Hiram Bullock, Stanton Davis, Marcus Miller, and Herman Wright Jr. In 1999 he began teaching at Berklee.

Discography

As leader

• Just Advance (Big World Music, 1992)
• Show No Fear (Groove Economy Records, 2018)

As sideman

With Dave Bargeron

• 1995 Barge Burns...Slide Flies
• 2002 Tuba Tuba

With Brand X

• 1977 Livestock
• 1977 Live from San Francisco
• 1987 X-Trax
• 2000 Timeline
• 2003 Macrocosm: Introducing...Brand X
• 2016 Rochester 1977

With Stanley Jordan

• 1990 Cornucopia
• 1991 Stolen Moments
• 2008 State of Nature
• 2011 Friends

With Pat Martino

• 1976 Joyous Lake
• 1998 Stone Blue
• 1999 First Light

With Maceo Parker

• 1992 Life on Planet Groove

With Jaco Pastorius

• 1989 PDB
• 1990 Live in New York City Vol. 1: Punk Jazz
• 1991 Live in New York City Vol. 2: Trio
• 1991 Live in New York City Vol. 3: Promise Land
• 1992 Live in New York City Vol. 4: Trio 2
• 1998 Holiday for Pans
• 1999 Live in New York City Vol. 6: Punk Jazz 2
• 2001 Live in New York City
• 2002 Modern Electric Bass: Revised Edition

With Dianne Reeves

• 1977 For Every Heart
• 1996 The Grand Encounter
• 1996 The Palo Alto Sessions

With others

• 1987 ...Nothing Like the Sun, Sting
• 1987 The Story of Moses, Bob Moses
• 1988 Diamond Land, Toninho Horta
• 1992 Il Suono, John Clark
• 1993 Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux, Miles Davis/Quincy Jones
• 1995 The Sweetest Days, Vanessa Williams
• 1996 Gravity!!!, Howard Johnson
• 1996 Sketches of Coryell, Larry Coryell
• 1997 Right Now!, Howard Johnson
• 2003 Soul Manifesto Live, Rodney Jones
• 2007 Live Vol. 1, Robin Eubanks
• 2012 David Fiuczynksi's Planet Microjam, David Fiuczynski

References

• Mark Gilbert, "Kenwood Dennard". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. 2nd edition, ed. Barry Kernfeld.