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Connie Kay
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Name
Connie Kay
Role
Drummer
Died
November 30, 1994, New York City, New York, United States
Music group
Modern Jazz Quartet (1955 – 1994)
Albums
Tenor Madness, The Complete Last Con, Under the Jasmin Tree, Pyramid, Blues on Bach
Similar People
Percy Heath, John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Kenny Clarke, Paul Chambers
Modern Jazz Quartet (May 16, 1962) - Jazz Casual
Conrad Henry Kirnon (April 27, 1927 – November 30, 1994) known professionally as Connie Kay, was an American jazz drummer who was a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Self-taught on drums, he began his career with saxophonist Lester Young's quintet from 1949 to 1955 and with Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis
Kay did R&B sessions for Atlantic Records in the early to mid-1950s, and he was featured on hit records such as "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Big Joe Turner.
Kay joined the Modern Jazz Quartet in 1955, replacing original drummer Kenny Clarke. He remained through the group's dissolution in 1974 and occasional reunions into the 1990s. He played drums on several of Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison's most albums: Astral Weeks, one song on Saint Dominic's Preview, and four songs on Tupelo Honey.
Kay was known for incorporating percussion instruments alongside his drum kit, such as timpani, small cymbals, triangle, bell tree, and darbukas, the latter referred to as "exotic-looking" drums in a 2006 article.
With the Modern Jazz Quartet
Modern Jazz Quartet (Savoy, 1952)
Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet (Original Jazz Classics, 1953)
MJQ (Original Jazz Classics, 1954)
Django (Original Jazz Classics, 1955)
The Modern Jazz Quartet at the Music Inn Volume 1 (3D, 1956)
One Never Knows (Atlantic, 1957)
Patterns (United Artists, 1960)
The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays for Lovers (Prestige, 1960)
Concorde (Prestige, 1955)
Fontessa (Atlantic, 1956) included "Versailles"
The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays No Sun in Venice (Atlantic, 1957)
The Modern Jazz Quartet (Atlantic, 1957)
The Modern Jazz Quartet and the Oscar Peterson Trio at the Opera House (Verve, 1957)
The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn Volume 2 (Atlantic, 1959)
Music from Odds Against Tomorrow (United Artists, 1959)
Pyramid (Atlantic, 1960)
European Concert (Atlantic, 1960 [1962])
Dedicated to Connie (Atlantic, 1960 [1995])
The Modern Jazz Quartet & Orchestra (Atlantic, 1960)
Third Stream Music (Atlantic, 1960)
The Comedy (Atlantic, 1962)
Lonely Woman (Atlantic, 1962)
A Quartet is a Quartet is a Quartet (Atlantic, 1963)
Collaboration (Atlantic, 1964) – with Laurindo Almeida
The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (Atlantic, 1965)
Jazz Dialogue (Atlantic, 1965) with the All-Star Jazz Band
Concert in Japan '66 (Atlantic [Japan], 1966)
Blues at Carnegie Hall (Atlantic, 1966)
Place Vendôme (Philips, 1966) – with The Swingle Singers
Under the Jasmin Tree (Apple, 1968)
Space (Apple, 1969)
Plastic Dreams (Atlantic, 1971)
The Legendary Profile (Atlantic, 1972)
In Memoriam (Little David, 1973)
Blues on Bach (Atlantic, 1973)
The Last Concert (Atlantic, 1974)
Reunion at Budokan 1981 (Pablo, 1981)
Together Again: Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival '82 (Pablo, 1982)
Echoes (Pablo, 1984)
Topsy: This One's for Basie (Pablo, 1985)
Three Windows (Atlantic, 1987)
For Ellington (East West, 1988)
Rose of the Rio Grande (Capitol, 1989)
MJQ & Friends: A 40th Anniversary Celebration (Atlantic, 1993)
A Night at the Opera (Jazz Anthology, 1994)
Live at the Theatre Royal, Bath (BBC, 2001)
As sideman
With Cannonball Adderley
Know What I Mean (Riverside, 1961)
With Chet Baker
Chet (Riverside, 1959)
Baker's Holiday (Limelight, 1965)
With Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown (Atlantic, 1957)
Miss Rhythm (Atlantic, 1959)
With Miles Davis
Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 (Columbia Legacy, 2015)
With Paul Desmond
First Place Again (Warner Bros., 1959)
Desmond Blue (RCA Victor, 1961)
Two of a Mind (RCA Victor, 1962) with Gerry Mulligan
Take Ten (RCA Victor, 1963)
Bossa Antigua (RCA Victor, 1964)
Glad To Be Unhappy (RCA Victor, 1964)
Easy Living (RCA Victor, 1963–65 [1966])
Pure Desmond (CTI, 1975)
With Bill Evans & Bob Brookmeyer
The Ivory Hunters (United Artists, 1959)
With Coleman Hawkins
Disorder at the Border (Spotlite, 1952 [1973])
With Jimmy Heath
Swamp Seed (Riverside, 1963)
With Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson Quartet (Prestige, 1955)
Plenty, Plenty Soul (Atlantic, 1957)
Bean Bags with Coleman Hawkins (Atlantic, 1958)
Bags' Opus (United Artists, 1958)
The Ballad Artistry of Milt Jackson (Atlantic, 1959)
Bags & Trane (Atlantic, 1959)
Vibrations (Atlantic, 1960–61)
Big Bags (Riverside, 1962)
Invitation (Riverside, 1962)
Statements (Impulse!, 1962)
For Someone I Love (Riverside, 1963)
Jazz 'n' Samba (Impulse!, 1964)
In a New Setting (Limelight, 1964)
With John Lewis
The Modern Jazz Society Presents a Concert of Contemporary Music (Norgran, 1955)
Afternoon in Paris (Atlantic, 1957) with Sacha Distel
