JOE KENNEDY JR.

Joe Kennedy, Jr., violinist, educator, composer, arranger, was born in Pittsburgh, PA. His grandfather, Saunders C. Bennett, Sr., introduced him to violin in McDonald, PA in the early 1930's. He was inducted into the U.S. Army during WWII and performed with the Camp Lee Symphony Orchestra, Petersburg, VA. After the war, Joe returned home and cut his Jazz teeth as a member of the Four Strings, along with pianist Ahmad Jamal, guitarist Ray Crawford, and bassist Edgar Willis. Mary Lou Williams, pianist, arranger, composer, secured and supervised the debut recording of the group. The album was entitled Trends on the Disc label -a subsidiary of Asch Records. The Strings received a highly favorable review in the May 29, 1949 DownBeat Magazine in which Kennedy was called "the cleanest violin we've ever heard". Joe studied Applied Music at Carnegie Mellon University and received a BS Degree in Music from Virginia State read more...