Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ray Mckinney was born Raymond Patterson McKinney on June 20, 1931 in Detroit, Michigan. He was the fourth of ten children artistically gifted, and most of the children took music lessons from their mother. Starting on the Ocarina, he soon graduated to the piano, then the cello which he took to the instrument immediately. His father and English teacher encouraged him to write poetry and he became quite proficient.

During his high school years that Ray was first exposed to jazz, hearing Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb in 1939, also Erskine Hawkins and Jay McShann when he had Charlie Parker with him. Music in the neighborhood, there were bands made up of youngsters who played homemade instruments, such as, pails, brushes, spoons and it was where Ray learned that he only needed himself to make music.

The band director at Northwestern High School forced him to switch from cello to bass. Academically gifted, he was determined to be heard above the Northwestern band, he developed his technique. His passion for music consumed his time and he quit school in 1947 at age sixteen. He was spending time with like-minded students and other aspiring musicians from his west-side neighborhood, Maurice Wash, Claire Rockamore, Barry Harris, and Frank Foster. It was where he developed stamina, playing twelve, eighteen hours at a time. McKinney and Harris worked local jobs backing a vocal group in which Harris’ wife Christine was a member. This group recorded at least twenty titles for the New Song label in 1950.

Ray became a force to be reckoned with on the competitive Detroit scene and he worked with several Detroit piano stars. Though he liked bassists Alvin Jackson, Clarence Sherrill and Major “Mule” Holley, his major influences were Ray Brown, Oscar Pettiford, Tommy Potter and Dillon “Curly” Russell. He befriended Paul Chambers and his cousin Doug Watkins, because their playing impressed him, especially Paul’s bowing.

In 1956 he moved to New York City with harpist Dorothy Ashby’s group, however, the gig didn’t last long when Ray was fired after punching Ashby’s husband in the face during an argument. He would go on to work with Guy Warren, Barry Harris, Ben Webster, Edmund Hall, Max Roach, Walter Benton, Booker Little, Julian Priester, Coleman Hawkins, Mal Waldron, Eric Dolphy, Red Garland, Yusef Lateef, Andy Bey and spent a year with comic Nipsey Russell’s back-up band.

For a short time he experimented with heroin but by 1973 McKinney was clean and living in Oberlin, Ohio and with a new love interest before settling in San Diego, California in 1974. With not much jazz happening he took up a series of day jobs for the next four years while continuing to create poetry.

His precarious health and his lack of insurance caused his friends concern and made his last years were unsteady. He received a special Lifetime Achievement award during Baker’s Keyboard Lounge 70th anniversary celebration in 2004. It was one of his final public appearances. Bassist Ray McKinney passed away on August 3, 2004, aged 73 in San Diego.

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