The Leader Of The Band, Is Also The Band.. I Gotta Be Me.. and Them, Too Date:December 02, 1974 By: BOB JOSLYN Of the: Sheboygan Press

When someone thinks of a one man band, they often picture a funny little man wearing a Rube Goldberg contraption with a bass drum on his back that he beats with a string attached to his shoes. Well, Dave Kennedy has a one-man band and he doesn't wear a drum on his back. And whats more, when Dave plays nobody laughs,. Mostly, they just sit and stare in amazement, especially when that great big Glen Miller sound of the 1940s comes smashing out of the speakers and beats them about eardrums. They listen because they enjoy it. They're amazed because they can't believe that one man made all that sound by himself. But he did. From the first opening lick on the drums through the rhythms of the bass and the harmony of the vibes and right on down to the melody, and that familiar Miller sound led by four velvet saxaphones. Of course Dave Kenney does't make all of that sound at the same time. Through the medium of multiplex recording, in which he was a pioneer, Dave can put together a 60-piece orchestra in his downtown Milwaukee studio and do it all alone. Live in Sheboygan And with the help of "instant replay," he can take the show on the road. That doesn't happen to often because of the complicated equipment that takes nearly a day to set up. The show did go on the road this past weekend though. Dave came to Sheboygan to entertain at a surprise 25th wedding anniversary party of his friends, Mr. and Mrs. William Schwartz. The affair, at Beth El Temple, was arranged by Schwartz' son and daughter, Jeff and Sandi. Jeff also had the job of being Kennedy's engineer on the tape deck and replay equipment. It was only the fifth time that Kennedy has given this show live. Friday afternoon they were setting up the equipment and doing a runthrough of the 25 minute program. On stage was Kennedy and a piano, tenor saxaphone, alto saxaphone, trombone, flute, trumpet marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, bass saxaphone, keyboard, bass and drums. Coming later would be a guitar and an upright bass. Flanking the stage were two huge speakers and back in the auditorium was the console for the playback equipment. Kennedy's show opens with a demonstartion of how he "builds" a song piece by piece. First came the beat, supplied by the drums borrowed by Jeff Schwartz. The seat was a little wobbly though, so Kennedy stood as he pounded out a few bars of rythm. It was good, but it wasn't Count Basie just yet. "Now we're gonna' add a little bass," Kennedy said, going through some patter as Jeff rewound the tape. Another round, this time with the drums on tape and Kennedy adding the Bass live. Jumpin with Basie And so it went, with the piano counter-melody, the flourishes and embelishment of the trombone, the vibes and the alto sax. It got a little better each time, but it was the last round, with all of the other sounds now on tape and Kennedy Playing the wild loud trumpet, when suddenly, Basie and his whole band was right there, jumpin at One o' Clock. Funny thing. You could see it being done and could here Dave Kennedy play each of the seven parts in turn, but when he had it all together and the Count litteraly leaped out of those huge speaker, it was still hard to believe that Kennedy did it all right there. The Count Basie is good for starters because it explains what Dave Kennedy is all about. But his real forte is with Glen Miller. Kennedy again works up piece by piece to "Moonlight Serenade," only this time, the tape runs continuosly since he has already recorded the back up pieces ahead of time. The only problem is that the tape never stops," Kennedy said. Split second timing during this part of the show is a must, and when you're grabbing one instrument as fast as you put another one down, there's always the worry that a reed may be out of line or a spit valve filled up, and there's no time to do anything about it. Need Rubber Lips Not only that, but a musician who plays a wind instrument has to shape his mouth a little different for every mouthpiece. Just playing one instrument can make facial muscles sore, but a lot of them can make you wish you had rubber lips. The 49 year old Kennedy, who heads the largest recording studio in Wisconsin, studied the violin and once had asperations of being a band leader. He landed a job with a dance band playing seven nights a week at the old Holiday House in Milwaukee and started taking the other musicians instruments along home so he could practice on them. This was more than 20 years ago, and the practice of "overdubbing" or recording, and playing it back while you record another part, had just gotten started. With the equipment available at that time, you couldn't overdub more than four or five times though because the tapes just wouln't syncronize, Kennedy explained. So Kennedy, who was hardly more than a brash younster at the time, took his two tape recorders and went to see a banker in Waukesha. "I've got an idea and I want to borrow $5,000," is what he claimes he told the banker. It took a few minutes for Kennedy to set up all his equipment on the bankers desk, and when he turned on the switch to demonstrate his multi-channel recording. The tapes were out of synchronization though, but Kennedy thought fast. "See, that's the problem," he said. It may have been a desperate move, but it worked. Kennedy got his $5,000 and bought two of the biggest and best tape recorders he could find. Soon his wife was suggesting that they were too big for thew apartment, so Kennedy found himself with his first studio in a rented building. No Virtuoso He began doing radio jingles, playing each part hiself. As a business improved, he was able to hire outside musicians to take some of the workload off himself. Also as Kennedy will be the fist to admit it, they had more talent on their particular instrument than he did. "I don't profess to be a virtuoso on these things. That's not the idea," he explained. Rather, Kennedy's aimwas to show that one person alone could make the entire "Big Band" sound. Overdubbing isn't that difficult with sounds such as rock music, where only a drum and several guitars may be involved, but it did present a real challenge in the Big Band sound. Kennedy spent 18 years trying to perfect it, and two years later his labor of love was consummated. An album, "All By Myself" was released, and features Kennedy on every part, including voice. It hasn't been a smashing success, by market standards, but as far as Kennedy is concered, it's doing just fine. "I made that album for one person - me," he said. Now that it's out, though, Kennedy doesn't listen to himself if he can help it. "If they start playing it in a resturant, I get so embarresed I walk out," he said. "Honest". After 18 years of playing and replaying passages of "Night Train" and "San Francisco," Kennedy is actualy concious of all the little imperfections that creep in. "You know, if there's 30 violins in a part, you've actually got to play that 30 times," he said. All By Himself But if Kennedy knows his imperfections, his audience doesn't. In fact, his numbers are sometimes too perfect and people just don't believe or comprehend that he did indeed play the entire piece himself. Somewhere out of that maze of equipment, they think, there's an entire 40-piece band hidden and maybe this character on stage on stage is just pretending to play ti. Kennedy had to drop a version of "Proud Mary" from his act because of that. When he finished with it one night, half the audience was applauding and the other half could'nt understand why.