Dave Mc Kenna - Biography

Biography

Starting out at the age of 15, McKenna played with Boots Mussulli (1947), Charlie Ventura (1949) and Woody Herman's Orchestra (1950–51). He then spent two years in the military, and re-joined Ventura (1953–54).

He worked with a variety of top swing and Dixieland musicians including Gene Krupa, Joe Venuti, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Bob Wilbur, Eddie Condon, and Bobby Hackett but became primarily a soloist after 1967, especially in the Northeast United States. McKenna performed with Louis Armstrong at the 1970 Newport Jazz Festival.

He started to be recognized in his own right during the 1970s, but chose to play in his local area rather than travel extensively. He preferred playing in clubs and hotels over getting center stage in major venues. He could be found playing in hotel piano bars in Massachusetts, including a decade-long run at Boston's Grand Dame Copley Plaza Hotel, that ended in 1991, when the Plaza was sold. The new owners briefly turned the Plaza Bar into a cabaret, but the new format was never as popular as Mckenna and ended within a year. Unfortunately, the damage was done and, because McKenna was much in demand, he only returned to the Plaza for a single night.

Because of his fondness for staying close to the melody, McKenna often said, “I’m not really a bona fide jazz guy”. Instead, he claimed, “I’m just a saloon piano player.” Regulars at the Copley Plaza Bar (now the Oak Room) rebuffed this modest remark by telling McKenna that he was “just a saloon player” like Billie Holiday was “just a saloon singer”. McKenna was a loyal Boston Red Sox fan who, to the amusement of fans and fellow musicians alike, would often listen to games on his transistor radio while performing. Since Mckenna did not drive, he often told friends that the best thing about staying at the Plaza six nights a week was being able to walk to his beloved Fenway Park. In a fitting tribute, Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione took time on-air during a game to say a few words about the passing of one of Boston's great, largely unsung talents. McKenna retired around the turn of the millennium due to increasing mobility problems brought on by his long battle with diabetes.

McKenna was also known as a wonderful accompanist, recording with such singers as Rosemary Clooney, Teddi King and Donna Byrne and recording a PBS special with Tony Bennett.

Dave McKenna died in 2008 from lung cancer. Survivors included his wife, Frances (Wiggins) McKenna (now deceased), of Oak Island, N.C.; two sons, Douglas of Cape Cod; Stephen and his wife Hiya and daughter, Caitlin, all of PA. He also leaves a brother, Donald; two sisters, Jean O’Donnell and Patricia Savard, all of R.I.