Kenny Kosek

Kenny Kosek
Kenny Kosek
Background information
Born1949 (age 74–75)
The Bronx, New York, U.S.
GenresBluegrass, country, folk, klezmer
OccupationMusician
InstrumentFiddle
Years active1970s–present
Websitekennykosek.com

Kenny Kosek (born 1949 in The Bronx, New York), is an American fiddler who plays bluegrass, country, klezmer, folk music and roots music. In addition to his solo career, he has performed with many other well-known performers and contributed to film and television soundtrack music. He is also a musical educator. Beyond the field of music, he is also known for his humor. He is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and City College of New York.

Influences and performing career

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Kenny Kosek's early musical influences included Clark Kessinger, Vassar Clements, The New Lost City Ramblers,[1] Kenny Baker and the May Brothers – Andy and Henry. While attending college, he played with The Star Spangled String Band and The Livingstone Cowboys, and freelanced in the Bleecker Street folk scene. His first post-collegiate professional work was as a member of the David Bromberg Band, and with a short-lived rock band, White Cloud, led by legendary hipster producer Thomas Jefferson Kaye. With Citizen Kafka and John Goodman, he wrote for and performed in the Citizen Kafka Show, a monthly improv and sketch comedy show that ran on WBAI-FM in New York City through the 1980s,[2][3] and as "Johnny Angry Red Weltz" was part of Citizen Kafka's influential newgrass group, the Wretched Refuse String Band.[4] He is similarly a part of Margot Leverett's fusion quintet The Klezmer Mountain Boys.[5]

Musical backup and background music

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Kosek has played backup on hundreds of albums, soundtracks, and jingles. He has recorded with James Taylor, Jerry Garcia,[6] Vassar Clements,[5] David Byrne, Chaka Kahn, Boy George,[1] Willie Nelson, Steve Goodman, Tom Chapin, Tony Trischka, David Bromberg, Bill Keith, Doug Sahm, Leonard Cohen, and John Denver and performed with the Late Night Band on Late Night with David Letterman and in Sting's annual benefit for the rainforests at Carnegie Hall.[1] His distinctive roots-music-inspired sound has been part of the soundtracks of many documentaries including The Way West, The Donner Party, Harlan County, U.S.A., The High Lonesome Sound, and the television shows Another World (NBC), The Guiding Light (CBS), and The Kirby Kids (Fox).

As a musical educator

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Kosek is deeply involved with music education. His musical instruction videos Learning Country Fiddle, Learning Bluegrass Fiddle, and Bluegrass Classics are available from Homespun Tapes and Videos. He has been a guest instructor at the Falun Folk Festival, Sweden, Tonder, Denmark Festival, the Sore Fingers Music camp, Cotswolds, England, the Big Apple Bluegrass Festival (1998–2002), and the Rathcoole, Ireland Folk Arts Festival (2004). He is a staff instructor in country fiddle at the Turtle Bay Music School in New York City. With Stacy Phillips, he co-authored Bluegrass Fiddle Styles, sometimes called the "yellow Bible" of bluegrass.[7]

Stage and film performances

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In addition to performing music, Kosek has appeared in many dramatic productions: in the movies They All Laughed and The Stepford Wives; on Broadway, in The Robber Bridegroom, Platinum, Play Me A Country Song, Foxfire, Big River, Jerry Garcia on Broadway and Footloose; and off-Broadway, in Feast Here Tonight, Das Barbecü, That and the Cup of Tea, A Celtic Christmas, Lost Highway, and Picon Pie.

Humor

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Kosek is also known as a humorist; he has written for the National Lampoon, contributed to numerous radio programs, and written liner notes for many fellow performers.

Discography

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solo albums

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  • Hasty Lonesome (with Matt Glaser, Rounder Records 0127, 1980)
  • Angelwood (Rounder Records CD 0362, 1997)

Permanent member of a bluegrass band

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  • Country Cooking- 14 Bluegrass Instrumentals (Rounder Records 0006, 1971)
  • Frank Wakefield Frank Wakefieled with Country Cooking (Rounder Records – 0007, 1972)
  • Country Cooking- Barrel of Fun (Rounder Records 0033, 1974)
  • Russ Barenberg, Country Cooking Bluegrass Guitar (Music Minus One – MMO 185, 1974)
  • Tony Trischka Early Years (Rounder Records CD 11578 1998 - KK : fiddle, piano) - Compilation of Bluegrass Light (Rounder Records – 0048, 1973) et Heartlands (Rounder Records – 0062, 1975)
  • Country Cooking With The Fiction Brothers (Flying Fish FF019, 1976)
  • Breakfast Special (Rounder Records 3012, 1977)
  • Welcome to Wretched Refuse (Betrayal Records, 1977)
  • Bill Keith, Something Auld, Something Newgrass, Something Borrowed, Something Bluegrass (Rounder Records 0084, 1976(LP), 1998(CD))
  • Bill Keith & Jim Collier (Hexagone 883 020, 1978 (LP), 199 742, (CD))

Membre du Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band

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Klezmer Mountain Boys

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  • Margot Leverett & The Klezmer Mountain Boys (Traditional Crossroads Records CD 4318, 2003)
  • Margot Leverett & The Klezmer Mountain Boys 2nd Avenue Square Dance(Traditional Crossroads Records CD4339, 2003)

occasional participation in bluegrass & Klezmer recordings

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  • Hazel Dickens et Alice Gerrard Working Girl Blues (Rounder Records 0054, 1976 (LP) : 2,3,9 (CD 1998 ):tracks 3,4,10 )
  • Jean Marie Redon [fr] Banjoistiquement Votre, (Cezame CEZ 1049, 1979 : tracks 1,2,4-6,8,12)
  • Andy Statman Flatbush Waltz - Bluegrass & Klezmer (Rounder Records/Trio Records AW-2086 1981 :tracks 1-3, 5)
  • Tony Trischka, Bill Keith & Béla Fleck Fiddle Tunes For Banjo (Rounder Records 0124, 1981, CD 0124 1999 :tracks 2,6,9,13,15)
  • Christian Séguret [fr] Blue Shades (Ada Production – ADA 1004 : tracks 2,3,6)
  • Bill Keith, Banjoistics (Rounder Records – 0148, 1984 : tracks 1-6, 8, 10)
  • Andy Statman Andy’s Rambles (Rounder Records, CD 0244, 1994)
  • Peter Rowan and the Wild Stallions, (Appaloosa, Italie, AP 016, 1982 (LP) 1994 (CD): tracks 5, 10, 11)
  • Kenny Kosek Weird Nightmare (Meditations On Mingus) (track 13 - Open Letter To Duke) with Tony Trischka, Bobby Previte, Barry Mitterhoff, Howard Levy, Susan Evans, Bob Stewart (1992)
  • Compilation: Song Of The Hills: Appalachian Classics, Shanachie 6041 (track 5 : Footprints In The Snow, instrumental version with Bill Keith, Tony Trischka, Eric Weissberg, Stacy Phillips, Molly Mason)
  • Ben Freed Suite for Bluegrass Banjo (2003: tracks 2-5, 7-8, 12)
  • Ben Freed Banjopolis (2007: tracks 2-3, 6,9, )
  • Ben Freed American Idle (2011:track 7)
  • Kenny Kosek Dear Jean: Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie (track 22 - Last Old Train’s a-Leavin’) with Peter Pickow, Jon Pickow (Compass Records – 7 4631 2 2014: CD2,4)

some references as a session musician

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Stacy Phillips, "Gigging fiddler: Kenny Kosek: Life without a day job", Strings, 1 January 2000, online[dead link].
  2. ^ Jackie Lyden, "Citizen Kafka's Most Important Contribution? Himself", NPR Weekend All Things Considered, 21 March 2009, transcript online at Highbeam.
  3. ^ Robert Siegel and Linda Wertheimer, "Profile: Citizen Kafka's career in radio", NPR All Things Considered, 17 April 2001, transcript online at Highbeam.
  4. ^ Ken Hunt, "Richard Shulberg", The Independent, 23 March 2009, online at Highbeam.
  5. ^ a b Jon Kalish, "Mixing Mountain Musics; How One Band Combines Klezmer and Bluegrass", The Forward, 14 November 2003, online at Highbeam.
  6. ^ Jackson, Blair (3 August 2000). Garcia: An American Life. Penguin. p. 373. ISBN 978-0-14-029199-5. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
  7. ^ New York: Oak, 1978, ISBN 9780825601859; Janet Farar-Royce, "Stacy Phillips Bluegrass Fiddle Boot Camp.(Video Recording Review)", Sing Out!, 22 September 2003, online at Highbeam.
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