Kenny Burrell – A Night At the Vanguard

Presented here is guitarist Kenny Burrell’s complete original LP A Night at the Vanguard. It showcases him in a trio format with Richard Davis on bass and Roy Haynes on drums, performing live at the Village Vanguard, in New York, on September 16-17, 1959. Kenneth Earl “Kenny” Burrell (born in Detroit, Michigan, on July 31, 1931, and 87-years old at this writing) was just beginning his long and fruitful career when he recorded this album.

These were the second collaborative recordings of the guitarist and Roy Haynes, following Babs Gonzales’ 1959 LP Tales of Manhattan. Burrell and Davis had recorded together on a 1957 date by tenor saxophonist Willis Jackson. Burrell would continue working with both Haynes and Davis on multiple occasions, ending with a series of 1982 Japanese concerts which reunited the three of them for the last time.