Woonsocket, Rhode Island Native Was an International Jazz Legend

I saw pianist Dave McKenna perform with a jazz combo at the Community College of Rhode Island's Flanagan Campus in Lincoln, Rhode Island some 30 years ago. I wondered how such a prominent jazz master might find himself booked at a local community college.

The thought never occurred to me that he might be a local kid, but he was.

Dave McKenna was born on May 30, 1930 in Woonsocket. His mother, Catherine (Reilly) McKenna, gave Dave his first piano lessons when he was a boy.

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John Worsley wrote for the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame that McKenna's mother "was a good pianist and church organist herself and an excellent classical violinist."

McKenna also received piano instruction from the Catholic nuns at Woonsocket's St. Charles Elementary School, but Worsley said he mostly was self-taught.

"He had 'the gift,'" Worsley wrote.

McKenna's father William was a drummer, and his sisters, Jean and Pat, sang.

McKenna was primarily known as a solo pianist and his "three-handed" swing style. He was at the forefront of the evolution of jazz piano. McKenna recorded for several record labels with big bands, small combos and as a solo artist.

McKenna's career paused for two years while he served in the Korean War.

The Dave McKenna website says Dave, his wife Frankie, and their two sons moved to Cape Cod in 1966, "where he worked less frequently with bands and more often as a solo pianist, but he still spent a great deal of time on the road." McKenna's career took him all over the world.

In the 1980s, McKenna worked as a pianist at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston.

Dave McKenna died from lung cancer on October 18, 2008 in College Park, Pennsylvania. He was 78.