Born: December 9, 1957 Primary Instrument: Vocal
Kenny Washington, a native of New Orleans developed a deep love for music at a very young age. Kenny grew up singing and performing gospel in church. He began performing with the school band, playing saxophone and singing. After graduating from high school, Kenny began to continue his studies in music at Xavier University. While at Xavier, he studied varies styles of music ranging from traditional and contemporary jazz, classical, rhythm and blues and pop.
Joining the honorary U.S. Navy Band in 1986, Kenny performed and toured nationally and internationally throughout the U.S., Asia, Russia, and Australia. After nine years as a sailor in the U.S. Navy, Kenny made his home the San Francisco Bay Area. He began performing in various jazz clubs in the bay area, working and recording with other well known artist. Kenny appeared in Roy Nathanson’s off-Broadway production of “Fire at Keaton’s Bar and Grill” with Elvis Costello and Deborah Harry, which opened in London and New York. Currently, he is the featured vocalist at San Francisco’s world famous Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotels’ “TOP OF THE MARK”.
If you have never heard this New Orleans native sing before, get ready for a jaw dropping experience. Kenny is a jazz vocalist virtuoso. Emulating the classic styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn, infusing colors of Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway, Kenny’s freedom • play approach, with over a four-octave range is awe inspiring. His tone on ballads is liquid, his scat is so rapid-fire, passionate, melodious and inventive that subsequent saxophone solos often pale, and his intonation is so precise that it becomes noticeable if the piano wasn’t tuned that day. His range seems limitless. With a childhood background singing in gospel, Kenny is at home with the Blues as well as Jazz.
