About Me
Debbie Kennedy was born into a family of professional classical musicians. Her paternal grandfather, Lauri, was personally invited by Arturo Toscanini to be principal cellist in the New York Philharmonic in the 1920's. He regularly performed chamber music with Arthur Rubenstein, Jasha Heifitz & William Primrose. Lauri's wife Dorothy (Debbie's grandmother) was a professional pianist & personal accompanist for the famous Irish tenor John McCormack, and taught the children of Enrico Caruso.
Debbie's father, John, was the principal cello with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Sir Thomas Beecham throughout the 1950's. He was also the first person ever to perform a cello concerto at the Edinburgh festival. He then moved to Australia where he was the leading Cello soloist during the '60s & '70s, & held the position of Senior Lecturor on the Faculty of Melbourne University.
Debbie's mother, Joan Dargavel, came from a long line of professional Welsh singers (Joan's uncle, Bruce Dargavel was principal Bass Baritone with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden aswell as the Glyndbourne Festival for many years and was the voice behind Sir Robert Helpmann in the movie "The Tales of Hoffman", late 1940's). Joan, herself a highly successful soprano, performed regularly for the B.B.C. and the Royal Philharmonic Choir during the 1950's, and appeared regularly on A.B.C. Television and radio in Australia throughout the 1960's & '70s. She was on the Faculty of Melbourne University & the Victorian College of the Arts.
Debbie's half brother Nigel Kennedy, renowned concert violinist, reached world recognition with his recording of Vivaldi's "The four seasons".Born in Melbourne, Australia, Debbie began piano lessons at the age of five. When she was ten she took up the French Horn, and soon after was accepted into a specialist Music school "The Victorian College of the Arts Technical School" which she attended for the entire 6 years of her Secondary Education.During these years Debbie performed frequently with professional and semi-professional orchestras, opera Company's and Theatre Company's around Melbourne and the State of Victoria. This gave her a solid foundation in Orchestral playing. Around this time, in her mid-teens, she was smitten with the sound of Jazz whilst flipping around the dial on her radio, late one night. She started to tune in every night, buy records & go to as many Jazz gigs as possible. The thought of playing Jazz herself never occurred to her, since she was a classical musician, playing the French Horn - an instrument seldom found in Jazz. After battling with this unyielding instrument for 10 years, Debbie reasoned that string playing was probably more in her genes. She also felt a natural attraction to the bass, so she started to play it at the age of Twenty. At this time Debbie moved to Sydney to persue her path as a classical musician, and study with a great English bass player, John Gray. The Bass opened up the world of Jazz for Debbie, and she began the 2 year Associate Diploma in Jazz at the Conservatorium of Music, Sydney University, when she was 24. After completing her Diploma, the next few years saw her working professionally as a Jazz musician around Australia and overseas.Debbie moved to New York in January 1998 to study with Rufus Reid. In April of that year she auditioned successfully for the all-female Big Band "Diva", and became a full-time band-member in October. With this band, Debbie toured extensively around the USA; performed in Austria with the celebrated Jazz singer Dianne Schurr; played the Ottawa Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival aswell as some of New York's finest Jazz Clubs: "Birdland", "The Jazz Standard" & "Feinstein's". Debbie also recorded on Diva's CD "I believe in you". She also appears on Golda Soloman's "Takin' it to the Hollow", Barbera Rosene's "All my life" & Lu Evers' "Music from the left hand".Some HIGHLIGHTS over the next few years:1/ Debbie toured to Cyprus in July/Aug 2000 with the professional Broadway
production of "Five guys named Moe".
2/ In Aug 2001 she performed with the well known singer/commedienne Lia
D'elaria at the Michigan Women's Festival.
3/ In Sept 2001 she commenced studies with renowned Bass player Professor
Ron Carter.
4 Throughout Oct/Nov/Dec 2003 she worked with the show "Our Sinatra" which
played 8 shows per week at the celebrated Jazz club "Birdland" and an
appearance on "Weekend today" for N.B.C. Television.
5/ In late Dec 2003 she toured to Switzerland to perform with Eddy Davis' New
Orleans Jazz band.
6/ Formed duo with guitarist Steve Blum (Peggy Lee's band) in July 2004 - Debbie singing
and playing bass.
7/ Since Oct 2004 Debbie has appeared regularly with Woody Allen's band at "The
Carlyle Hotel".
8/ Toured to France with Woody Allen's Jazz band in June/July 2006.
9/ Began recording her own CD in March '07 - still in progress.Since moving to New York, Debbie has also worked with Bob Mover, Larry Porter (both were sidemen with Chet baker), Peggy Stern, Barry Altschul, Bobby Watson, Eliot Sigmond (formerly Bill Evans' trio), Steve Blum (Peggy Lee's band), Harry Whittaker, Fuku Tenaka (Dr. Lonnie Smith's Band), Patience Higgins, Steve Little (Duke Ellington's Band) and Randy Brecker. She has played in informal situations with Roy Hargrove, Wessell Anderson, Peter Bernstein, Javon Jackson, Eddie Henderson, Steve Williams, Charlie Persip (Dizzy Gillespie's big band), Jimmy Lovelace & Melvin Rhyne (both w/ Wes Montgomery's band), Jimmy Cobb, Clark Terry, and Les Paul.Other leading New York Jazz venues where she has performed are: "The Blue Note", "The Iridium", "Lincoln Centre", "Sweet Basil", "The Knitting Factory", "Smoke", "B.B. King's" "The Metropolitan Room" & "The Garage"
