Kenny Poole

Kenny Poole

Kenny Poole (1947- May 27, 2006) was an American jazz guitarist, a prominent musician on the Cincinnati musical scene. Allaboutjazz.com referred to him as a "guitarist's guitarist" and noted his "soulful and sophisticated finger-style arrangements". He was particularly accomplished at bossa nova and keeping rhythm with melody at the same time, with an angular playing style in his right hand. Poole began playing the guitar at the age of 14, after hearing Chet Atkins's album Finger Style Guitar. He became a professional musician in 1966, and over the years he played with the likes of Jack McDuff, Tal Farlow, Joe Pass, Howard Alden, Jack Wilkins, Groove Holmes, Mark Murphy, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Jimmy Raney, Mundell Lowe, Cal Collins, Howard Alden, Jimmy Bruno, James Brown and others. He played Wednesday and Thursday evenings at the Stein & Vine Pub in Cincinnati. In the 1980s he performed regularly with Cal Collins as a guitar duo.Before his death from cancer in 2006, he released the Tom Antony and Marcos Sastre-produced album Heritage, a live album featuring his solo performances at Cincinnati's Heritage Restaurant. The book Ohio Jazz: A History of Jazz in the Buckeye State referred to him as "a legend in Cincinnati". In honor of Poole, the Cincinnati radio station WVXU aired a two-hour special on the first anniversary of his death on May 27, 2007, featuring a range of friends and fellow musicians including Steve Schmidt and Andy Brown.

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