A few years ago, composer-arranger Johnny Mandel told me that Tiny Kahn was one of his favorite arrangers. As Johnny put it, no one could craft a flag-waver like Kahn, with huge build, drive and swing. Johnny and Kahn go back to 1944, when both were in Henry Jerome's band. Both also arranged for Woody Herman and Elliot Lawrence in the early 1950s. [Pictured above, Tiny Kahn and Elliot Lawrence]
In addition to being a strong arranger, Kahn was a marvelous drummer (on sticks and brushes) and cymbal stylist, as evidenced by his work behind Stan Getz on Live at Storyville from October 1951. As for drums on barn-burners, all you need to hear is Kahn with Chubby Jackson's big band in 1949 on Father Knickerbopper and Tiny's Blues, both Kahn compositions. [Pictured above, Tiny Kahn, with Red Rodney on trumpet]
Sadly, Kahn's writing and playing genius would be short-lived. He died on Aug. 19, 1953 of a heart attack at age 29 while vacationing on Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. [Pictured above, Red Kelly on bass, drummer Don Manning standing and Tiny Kahn in 1949 at New York's Apollo Theatre]
Yesterday, I listened to eight of Kahn's arrangements for Elliot Lawrence's big band: TNT, Blue Room, My Heart Stood Still, Jeepers Creepers, Who Fard That Shot?, Walkin' My Baby Back Home, Alone Together and Maybe. The first five are from Elliot Lawrence Plays Tiny Kahn & Johnny Mandel, from January 1956, while the last three are from Lawrence's Swinging at the Steel Pier in June 1956. The personnel on Kahn & Mandel features Nick Travis, Bernie Glow, Al Derisi and Stan Fishelson (tp); Eddie Bert, Urbie Green and Paul Selden (tb); Tony Miranda (fhr); Sam Marowitz and Hal McKusick (as); Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Eddie Wasserman (ts); Charlie O'Kane (bar) Elliot Lawrence (p) Buddy Jones (b) and Sol Gubin (d). Now that's a band!
Kahn's arrangements are tightly written and smartly constructed, with a snappy intro, compelling section dialogue and lines that invariably rise up and explode with excitement. A joy at every turn.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find three of the tracks above on Elliot Lawrence: Swinging at the Steel Pier here. The other five are on Elliot Lawrence Swings Cohn and Kahn here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Tiny Kahn's arrangement of his own TNT for Elliot Lawrence...
Here's Kahn's arrangement of Blue Room, with saxophonist Al Cohn featured...
Here's Kahn's arrangement of Walkin' My Baby Back Home live at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City....
A special thanks to Robert Kahn, Tiny's cousin.
