Last Thursday’s Chronicle had an article saying that one of the greatest names in jazz today, Quincy Jones, was honored recently at the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz.
Most jazz fans recognize that Jones has a connection with the Pacific Northwest, since his early days in music were spent, beginning in high school, in Seattle.
Fewer people know that there’s also a connection to Centralia. One of his friends and fellow jazz musicians back in those early days was Kenny Kimball who spent almost his entire musical career as the head of the music department at Centralia College. His delightful wife; Audrey, is about the only person who refers to him today as “Kenneth.” To the rest of the world, though, he’s always been “Ken” or “Kenny.”
A book was published in 1993 called “Jackson Street After Hours,” which details the early days when Jackson Street was the jazz center of Seattle and the center of the African American community. It’s out of print now, but if you go online and type in “bookfinder.com” you’ll find copies, both new and used, priced from $2.00 to $200.00.
There are at least a dozen references to Kenny in that book, along with a pair of pictures of a skinny young kid with glasses, obviously oblivious to anything else in the world except the music he was playing. Of course, you’ll find about 35 or 40 references to Quincy as well
Kenny was a great teacher: tough, but never anything other than pleasant in front of a classroom. Since I worked an afternoon and evening shift in the 60s, I had my mornings free, so I took every class from him that I could up to the point where those lessons went beyond my ukulele-strumming ability to comprehend.
How tough was Ken as a teacher? Just tough enough to let students know that he wanted and expected them to do their very best at all times. In that first class I took from him, the test at the end of the quarter was to write an original song, make an arrangement of it in four-part harmony, and then personally conduct the college choir in that piece.
I had the unmitigated gall to come up with a musical adaptation of portions of Dr. Martin Luther King’s legendary “I have a dream” speech, which was still fresh and new then. At least I didn’t flunk the course.
Two fellow students in those classes stayed with music, Napavine community leader and musician, Jerry Owens, and recent Centralia High School music director, Gary Calkins.
After Quincy Jones became famous, he and Ken remained friends, with Kenny occasionally staying with him when he was stationed in the army on the East Coast. In later years, after he and Audrey moved to Centralia, Kenny achieved a musical reputation of his own which few people, including many of his friends, knew about.
Back in the mid-century, when top artists of the day, such as Eartha Kitt or Gordon MacRae, Sherry Lewis, Jack Jones and even Red Skelton appeared in Seattle, he was the pianist who accompanied them, often at their request.
Getting back to Kenny’s friendship with Quincy Jones, when he died too soon and too suddenly in March of 2003, Quincy sent a book to Audrey called “Crossings,” with the note that it had been given to him by the author of “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker, at a difficult time in his own life.
The book contains quotations, prayers, poems and thoughts for those going through such times, and he wanted her to have it. She still does.
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Bill Moeller is a former entertainer, mayor, bookstore owner, city council member, paratrooper and pilot living in Centralia. He can be reached at bookmaven321@comcast.net.
