Kenneth David “Kenny” Kirkland (September 28, 1955 in Newport, New York

Newport, New York

Newport, New York is the name of a town and a village in Herkimer County, New York, USA:*Newport , New York*Newport , New York...

 – November 12, 1998 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

) was an American pianist/keyboardist. He is most often associated with Sting, Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...

, Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...

, and Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett is a Grammy Award-winning American post bop jazz saxophonist and flautist who gained fame in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and of Miles Davis's band. He has since pursued a critically acclaimed solo career...

.

Biography

Born in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in 1955, Kenneth David Kirkland was only six when he first sat down at a piano keyboard. After years of Catholic schooling, Kirkland enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan School of Music

The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

, where he studied classical piano performance, classical theory and composition. His first professional work came with Polish

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

 fusion violinist Michal Urbaniak

Michal Urbaniak

Michał Urbaniak is a Polish jazz musician and composer born in Warsaw, playing mainly the violin, lyricon and saxophone during concerts and recordings...

, touring throughout Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 with his group in 1977 and recording the albums Urbaniak and Daybreak. Coincidentally, Kirkland’s next high-profile gig was with another Eastern European jazz émigré, Miroslav Vitous

Miroslav Vitouš

Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš , is a Czech jazz bassist.-Biography:Born in Prague, he began the violin at age six, and started playing the piano at age ten, and bass at fourteen. As a young man in Europe, Vitouš was a competitive swimmer. One of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his...

. Kirkland is featured on Vitous’ ECM

ECM (record label)

ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...

 recordings First Meeting and Miroslav Vitous Group.

In his more than twenty-year career, Kirkland worked, performed or recorded with such artists as Don Alias

Don Alias

Charles 'Don' Alias was an American jazz percussionist.Alias was best known for playing congas and other hand drums...

, Bob Berg

Bob Berg

Bob Berg was a jazz saxophonist originally from Brooklyn, New York City. He started his musical education at the age of six when he began studying classical piano. He began playing the saxophone at the age of thirteen. Bob Berg was a Juilliard graduate influenced heavily by the late 1964–67 period...

, Art Blakey

Art Blakey

Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....

, Carla Bley

Carla Bley

Carla Bley, née Borg, is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill , as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other...

, Donald Byrd

Donald Byrd

Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...

, Kenny Burrell

Kenny Burrell

Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.-Biography:...

, Terence Blanchard

Terence Blanchard

Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...

, Michael Brecker

Michael Brecker

Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...

, Tony Bunn

Tony Bunn

Robert Anthony Bunn, also known as Tony Bunn, is an American bassist, composer, producer, and writer.His instruments are bass guitar, upright bass, voice, and mind. His styles are jazz, funk, blues, and rock.-Biography :...

, Gary Burton

Gary Burton

Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist.A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated...

, Ron Carter

Ron Carter

Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...

, Lonnie Cavers, Stanley Clarke

Stanley Clarke

Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...

, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Urszula Dudziak

Urszula Dudziak

Urszula Bogumiła Dudziak-Urbaniak is a leading Polish jazz vocalist. She has worked with such artists as Krzysztof Komeda, Michał Urbaniak , Gil Evans, Archie Shepp, and Lester Bowie...

, George Duke

George Duke

George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...

, Cornell Dupree

Cornell Dupree

Cornell Luther Dupree was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He worked at various times with Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, King Curtis and Steve Gadd, appeared on David Letterman, and wrote a book on soul and blues guitar: Rhythm and Blues Guitar ISBN 0-634-00149-3...

, Kevin Eubanks

Kevin Eubanks

Kevin Tyrone Eubanks is an American jazz guitarist and composer who was the leader of the Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led The Primetime Band on the short-lived The Jay Leno Show.- Personal background :Eubanks was born into a musical family...

, Gil Evans

Gil Evans

Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...

, Charles Fambrough

Charles Fambrough

Charles Fambrough was a Jazz bassist, composer and record producer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Fambrough was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers during the early 1980s...

, Sonny Fortune

Sonny Fortune

Sonny Fortune is an American jazz alto saxophonist and flautist. He also plays soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone and clarinet.-Biography:...

, Frank Foster and the Loud Minority, Chico Freeman

Chico Freeman

Chico Freeman is a modern jazz tenor saxophonist and trumpeter and son of jazz saxophonist Von Freeman...

, Steve Gadd

Steve Gadd

Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...

, Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett is a Grammy Award-winning American post bop jazz saxophonist and flautist who gained fame in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and of Miles Davis's band. He has since pursued a critically acclaimed solo career...

, Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...

, Mark Gray

Mark Gray

Mark Eugene Gray is an American country music artist. He has recorded both as a solo artist for Columbia Records and as a member of the country pop band Exile, of which he was a member between 1979 and 1982....

, Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), Elvin Jones

Elvin Jones

Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....

, Stanley Jordan

Stanley Jordan

Stanley Jordan is an American jazz/jazz fusion guitarist and pianist, best known for his development of the tapping technique for the guitar....

, Rodney Jones

Rodney Jones

Rodney Jones is an American poet and professor of English at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Jones was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award. His other honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Peter I.B...

, Pat LaBarbera

Pat LaBarbera

Pat LaBarbera is an American-born Canadian jazz tenor, alto and soprano saxophonist, clarinetist, and flautist born in Mt. Morris, New York, most notable for his work as a soloist in Buddy Rich bands from 1967–1973....

, Hubert Laws

Hubert Laws

Hubert Laws is an American flutist and saxophonist with a 40+ year career in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Alongside Herbie Mann, Laws is probably the most recognized and respected jazz flutist...

, Mike Manieri, Cecil McBee, Jr., Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...

, Bob Mintzer

Bob Mintzer

Bob Mintzer is a jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader based in Los Angeles, California. Mintzer is a member of the jazz rock band the Yellowjackets.-With The Yellowjackets:*Greenhouse, 1991;*Live Wires, 1992;...

, Thelonious ('T.M.') Monk, Jr., Airto Moreira

Airto Moreira

Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Airto is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.-Biography:...

, Teruo Nakamura

Teruo Nakamura

Private was a Taiwan-born soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army who fought for Japan in World War II and did not surrender until 1974.His name in his native language appears to have been Attun Palalin...

, Jaco Pastorius

Jaco Pastorius

John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....

, Tito Puente

Tito Puente

Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...

, Arturo Sandoval

Arturo Sandoval

Arturo Sandoval is a jazz trumpeter and pianist. He was born in Artemisa, in the newest renamed Artemisa Province, Cuba....

, Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...

, John Scofield

John Scofield

John Scofield , often referred to as "Sco," is an American jazz guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham,...

, Tom Scott

Tom Scott (musician)

Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...

, Sting, John Stubbelfield, Lew Tabakin, Ernie Watts

Ernie Watts

Ernest James "Ernie" Watts is an American jazz and rhythm and blues musician. He plays saxophone and flute. He might be best known for his work with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and his Grammy Awards as an instrumentalist...

, Jeff 'Tain' Watts

Jeff 'Tain' Watts

Jeff "Tain" Watts is a jazz drummer born in 1960 who has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Betty Carter, Michael Brecker, and others.-Biography:...

, Mark Whitfield

Mark Whitfield

Mark Whitfield is an American hard bop and soul-jazz guitarist born in Syosset, New York, probably better known for his recordings as bandleader for both the Verve and Warner Bros. Records record labels...

, Reggie Workman

Reggie Workman

Reginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....

. Throughout his career, Kirkland also offered his talents to a variety of non-jazz artists, from soul singers Ben E. King

Ben E. King

Benjamin Earl King , better known as Ben E. King, is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me", a U.S...

 and Angela Bofill

Angela Bofill

Angela Bofill is an American R&B vocalist and songwriter.Bofill was born to a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother; one of the first Latina singers to find success in the R&B market.She performed with Ricardo Marrero & the Group and Dance Theater of Harlem chorus prior to her 1978 debut album,...

, to Senegalese star Youssou N'Dour

Youssou N'Dour

Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, percussionist and occasional actor. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, in Senegal and much of Africa, "perhaps the most famous singer alive." He helped develop a style of popular music in Senegal, known in the Serer language as mbalax, a type of music...

 and Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo

Angélique Kidjo

Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, commonly known as Angélique Kidjo is a Grammy Award–winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva". The BBC has...

, to classic-rockers Stephen Stills

Stephen Stills

Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...

 and David Crosby

David Crosby

David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...

, to folk singer Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

.

Affable, hardworking and uncannily brilliant in his ability to create, recreate and spontaneously compose, Kirkland was known as a true musical genius and shy work-a-holic, who often turned a simple five minute conversation with a new friend into an album session. One of his closest friends on the 'New York jazz scene' was Chinese-Jamaican documentary filmmaker Lee Lew-Lee, (now a tech industry CEO). Between 1973-1980, Lew-Lee, then a music industry manager / documentary photographer, introduced Kirkland to several musicians that Kenny ended up befriending personally or professionally. These included: Al Anderson (Bob Marley and the Wailers), Bob Berg

Bob Berg

Bob Berg was a jazz saxophonist originally from Brooklyn, New York City. He started his musical education at the age of six when he began studying classical piano. He began playing the saxophone at the age of thirteen. Bob Berg was a Juilliard graduate influenced heavily by the late 1964–67 period...

, South African pianist Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), Ron Carter

Ron Carter

Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...

, Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...

, Mark Gray

Mark Gray

Mark Eugene Gray is an American country music artist. He has recorded both as a solo artist for Columbia Records and as a member of the country pop band Exile, of which he was a member between 1979 and 1982....

, Art Gore, Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, Carter Jefferson

Carter Jefferson

Carter Jefferson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Jefferson played clarinet and alto saxophone early in his career, playing in the backing bands for The Temptations, The Supremes, and Little Richard in the 1960s. In 1971, he entered New York University, and played with Mongo Santamaría and...

, Kraig Kilby (Whispers, Etta James), Geoff Lee

Geoff Lee

Dr Geoffrey "Geoff" Lee MP , an Australian politician, is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Parramatta for the Liberal Party of Australia since 2011.-Early years and background:...

, Raphe Malik

Raphe Malik

Raphe Malik, born Laurence Mazel was an American jazz trumpeter....

, Rene McLean

René McLean

René McLean is a hard bop saxophonist and flutist. He was born in New York City. He started playing guitar later received his alto saxophone, also had instruction from his father, noted alto saxophonist Jackie McLean....

, Bob Mintzer

Bob Mintzer

Bob Mintzer is a jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader based in Los Angeles, California. Mintzer is a member of the jazz rock band the Yellowjackets.-With The Yellowjackets:*Greenhouse, 1991;*Live Wires, 1992;...

, Nobuku Miyamoto, Jaco Pastorius

Jaco Pastorius

John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....

, Sun Ra

Sun Ra

Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...

, Dewey Redman

Dewey Redman

Dewey Redman was an American jazz saxophonist, known for performing free jazz as a bandleader, and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett....

, Sam Rivers

Sam Rivers

Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....

, Lady Jane Robertson, Glenn Spearman

Glenn Spearman

Glenn Spearman was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He was specifically associated with free jazz and experimental music....

, Cecil Taylor

Cecil Taylor

Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...

, Harry Whitaker, Benny Yee; as well as New York based Japanese expatriates, acoustic double bassist and Rising Sun

Rising Sun

Rising Sun may refer to sunrise. It may also refer to:-Music:*"Rising Sun" , a song written by Fats Domino* Rising Sun , 2005* Rising Sun , 2010* Rising Sun , 1986...

 group leader Teruo Nakamura

Teruo Nakamura

Private was a Taiwan-born soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army who fought for Japan in World War II and did not surrender until 1974.His name in his native language appears to have been Attun Palalin...

, pianist Masabumi Kikuchi

Masabumi Kikuchi

is a Japanese jazz pianist and composer born in Tokyo, Japan, notable for working with a variety of well known jazz musicians such as Lionel Hampton, Sonny Rollins, Woody Herman, Mal Waldron, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis, Billy Harper and Hannibal Peterson.-Select...

, drummer Keiji Kishida, electric jazz guitarist Shiro Mori, trumpeter Shunzo Ono

Shunzo Ono

is a former Japanese football player. He was a centre back.-Career:He was educated at and played for Narashino High School. After graduating in 1983, he joined Japan Soccer League side Sumitomo Metals When Japan's first-ever professional league J. League Division 1 started in 1993, Sumitomo Metals...

, percussionist Nobu Urushiyama, electric guitarist Masuo Yoshiyaki, and trumpeter Terumasa Hino

Terumasa Hino

is a Japanese jazz trumpeter. Currently based in New York, Hino is widely acknowledged as one of Japan's finest jazz musicians. His instruments include the trumpet, cornet and flügelhorn.-Biography:...

.

In 1980, while Kirkland was on tour in Japan with Terumasa Hino, he met Wynton Marsalis, which began their long association. On Marsalis’ self-titled debut album, Kirkland shared the piano duties with one of his musical influences, Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, but was the sole pianist on Marsalis’ subsequent releases Think Of One, Hothouse Flowers and Black Codes (From the Underground)

Black Codes (From the Underground)

Black Codes is a 1985 post-bop jazz album by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Originally released on record, it was reissued on CD in 1990...

. After his association with Wynton Marsalis, Kirkland joined Branford Marsalis’ band. He is featured on the albums Royal Garden Blues, Renaissance, Random Abstract, Crazy People Music, I Heard You Twice The First Time and the eponymously-titled album from Marsalis’ funk band Buckshot Lefonque

Buckshot LeFonque

Buckshot LeFonque was a musical group project of Branford Marsalis. The name Buckshot LeFonque was a pseudonym used by jazz saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley for contractual reasons on the album Here Comes Louis Smith...

. When Branford Marsalis assumed the high-visibility role of bandleader for NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 TV's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Kirkland became the band's pianist. But his time on the Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

-based 'Tonight Show' would be short-lived, for while he finally received well desereved fame and publicity, he felt he was not making 'real music', and thus returned to the East Coast and more creative work after two years as the 'Tonight Show's pianist.

As opposed to many piano “purists,” Kirkland was never shy of electric keyboards and synthesizers, although he is considered one of the finest, classically trained, jazz pianists of his era..

He also ran contrary to jazz orthodoxy when he left Wynton Marsalis’ acoustic traditional jazz combo to join Branford Marsalis accompanying ex-Police

The Police

The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...

 pop star Sting. Kirkland appears on Sting albums The Dream of the Blue Turtles

The Dream of the Blue Turtles

The Dream of the Blue Turtles is the first solo album by British pop singer-songwriter Sting, released in the United States on 1 June 1985, a year after The Police had unofficially disbanded...

, Bring On the Night

Bring On the Night

Bring on the Night is a 1986 live album by Sting recorded over the course of several live shows in 1985 and released in 1986. The title is taken from a song by The Police from their 1979 album Reggatta de Blanc. The songs performed include Sting's early solo material from the studio album The Dream...

(and in Michael Apted

Michael Apted

Michael David Apted, CMG is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up Series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.On 29 June 2003 he was elected...

’s 1985 documentary film by the same name), ...Nothing Like the Sun

...Nothing Like the Sun

…Nothing Like the Sun is a 1987 album by Sting. The title comes from Shakespeare's Sonnet #130 , which Sting used in the song "Sister Moon"...

, The Soul Cages

The Soul Cages

The Soul Cages is the third full length studio album released by Sting. Released in 1991, it became his second No. 1 album in the United Kingdom. It spawned four singles: "All This Time", "Mad About You", "Why Should I Cry For You" and "The Soul Cages"...

and Mercury Falling

Mercury Falling

Mercury Falling is the fifth studio album released by Sting. The album was marked by its tight studio production and use of brass reminiscent of recordings made at FAME Studios in the 1960s. This release was considered by many fans to signal the beginning of Sting's transition from heavier...

.

In 1991, he released his debut as a leader, Kenny Kirkland, on GRP Records

GRP Records

GRP Records is an American jazz record company, owned by Universal Music Group and operates through its Verve Music Group. The company's name has had different meanings. In its early days, it stood for "Grusin/Rosen Productions," after the founders...

. An album on Sunnyside Records, Thunder And Rainbows/J.F.K., is also credited to him.

Leading up to and on June 1–3, 1998, Kirkland worked diligently with long-time associate Jeff "Tain" Watts on the drummer's debut recording Citizen Tain. According to producer Delfeayo Marsalis, "He was clearly not in good shape." When asked about going to the doctor, Kirkland responded, "After the session. If I go now, they'll make me check into a hospital." On June 4, 1998 doctors told Kirkland he had a congestive heart condition that required an operation. However, due to 20 years of road work without adequate vacations and a lack of physical exercise for many years, his chances of survival any surgery were deemed 50/50 or less. Fearful of going under the blade, Kirkland accepted his fate and was soon on the road with Branford Marsalis again. On November 7, 1998 Kirkland attended Marsalis' wedding in New Rochelle, NY. Though he appeared in good spirits (or perhaps resolute), he was found deceased in his Queens apartment on Friday, November 13, 1998.

Official doctor's report listed his death due to congestive heart failure. He is survived by his mother, a brother and two sisters.

As sideman

With Carla Bley

• 1984 Heavy Heart
  Heavy Heart (album)
  Heavy Heart is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley recorded in 1983 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1984.-Reception:...
  
  (Watt, 1984)

With Michael Brecker

• 1987 Michael Brecker
  Michael Brecker (album)
  Michael Brecker is the debut album by American saxophonist Michael Brecker. It was released on the Impulse! record label in 1987.The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awards the album a full 5 stars and states "Although he had been a major tenor saxophonist in the studios for nearly 20 years and was...
  
  

With Kenny Garrett

• 1997 Songbook
• 1992 Black Hope

With Robert Hurst

• 1994 "One for Namesake"

With Elvin Jones

Elvin Jones

Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....

• Brother John (1982) with Reggie Workman
  Reggie Workman
  Reginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....
  
  , Pat LaBarbera
  Pat LaBarbera
  Pat LaBarbera is an American-born Canadian jazz tenor, alto and soprano saxophonist, clarinetist, and flautist born in Mt. Morris, New York, most notable for his work as a soloist in Buddy Rich bands from 1967–1973....
  
   (Palo Alto Records
  Palo Alto Records
  Palo Alto Records was a jazz record label that released most of its discography in the 1980s. The label was founded in 1981 by Jim Benham, who was a Palo Alto, California resident. The artistic director was Herb Wong. In 1985 the company ceased its activities...
  
  )

With Wynton Marsalis

• 1981 Wynton Marsalis
• 1983 Think of One
• 1984 Hot House Flowers
  Hot House Flowers
  Hot House Flowers is an illustrated, allegorical children's book written and self-published by Brooklyn criminal court judge John H. Wilson, which compares illegal immigration to dandelions which overrun a greenhouse....
  
  
• 1985 Black Codes (From the Underground)
  Black Codes (From the Underground)
  Black Codes is a 1985 post-bop jazz album by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Originally released on record, it was reissued on CD in 1990...
  
  

With Branford Marsalis

• 1983 Scenes in the City
• 1985 Royal Garden Blues
• 1986 Renaissance
• 1987 Random Abstract
• 1990 Crazy People Music
• 1992 I Heard You Twice the First Time
• 1999 Requiem

With Delfeayo Marsalis

• 1992 "Pontius Pilate's Decision"

With Lew Soloff

• 1987 But Beautiful

With Sting

• 1985 The Dream of the Blue Turtles
  The Dream of the Blue Turtles
  The Dream of the Blue Turtles is the first solo album by British pop singer-songwriter Sting, released in the United States on 1 June 1985, a year after The Police had unofficially disbanded...
  
  
• 1986 Bring on the Night
  Bring On the Night
  Bring on the Night is a 1986 live album by Sting recorded over the course of several live shows in 1985 and released in 1986. The title is taken from a song by The Police from their 1979 album Reggatta de Blanc. The songs performed include Sting's early solo material from the studio album The Dream...
  
  
• 1987 ...Nothing Like the Sun
  ...Nothing Like the Sun
  …Nothing Like the Sun is a 1987 album by Sting. The title comes from Shakespeare's Sonnet #130 , which Sting used in the song "Sister Moon"...
  
  
• 1990 Englishman in New York
  Englishman in New York
  "Englishman in New York" is a song by Sting, from his 1987 album ...Nothing Like the Sun. The "Englishman" in question is the famous eccentric Quentin Crisp. Sting wrote the song not long after Crisp moved from London to an apartment in New York's Bowery...
  
  
• 1991 The Soul Cages
  The Soul Cages
  The Soul Cages is the third full length studio album released by Sting. Released in 1991, it became his second No. 1 album in the United Kingdom. It spawned four singles: "All This Time", "Mad About You", "Why Should I Cry For You" and "The Soul Cages"...
  
  
• 1996 Mercury Falling
  Mercury Falling
  Mercury Falling is the fifth studio album released by Sting. The album was marked by its tight studio production and use of brass reminiscent of recordings made at FAME Studios in the 1960s. This release was considered by many fans to signal the beginning of Sting's transition from heavier...
  
  

With Miroslav Vitous

Miroslav Vitouš

Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš , is a Czech jazz bassist.-Biography:Born in Prague, he began the violin at age six, and started playing the piano at age ten, and bass at fourteen. As a young man in Europe, Vitouš was a competitive swimmer. One of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his...

• First Meeting (ECM, 1979)
• Miroslav Vitous Group
  Miroslav Vitous Group
  Miroslav Vitous Group is an album by Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous recorded in 1980 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Eugene Chadbourne awarded the album 2½ stars stating "This is an album that flutters between different jazz camps in a manner that might seem...
  
  (ECM, 1980)

With Jeff “Tain” Watts

• 1991 Megawatts
• 1999 Citizen Tain

External links

• Obituary reprinted from the Daily Telegraph