Baltimore Jazz Hero
Eric Kennedy, drummer, vocalist, multi-percussionist and composer, is the Jazz Journalist Association’s 2023 Baltimore Jazz Hero.
Eric has performed, toured, and recorded with an impressive range of solid jazz leaders including Gary Bartz, Fred Wesley, Ethel Ennis, Larry Willis,Carl Grubbs and Pansori (Korean solo opera) master Ahn Sook Sun. He was the last drummer/vocalist for the bluesy Holmes Brothers, honored with a National Heritage Award. He’s been an integral member of projects by previous Baltimore Jazz Heroes including bass clarinetist-ensemble leader Todd Marcus (celebrated in 2016), trumpeter-educator Sean Jones (2020) and, bassist Ed Hrybyk (2022).
But musical achievements, accolades and associations are not what earn Eric Kennedy his recognition as a hero – rather, it’s his work since 1996 as an educator, mentoring Baltimore’s young population, from children to undergraduates.
Kennedy has taught voice and music for after-school programs at Alice Pinderhughes elementary school and the Eubie Blake Cultural Arts Center. He taught percussion at Mount Royal Elementary/Middle School. He’s a music instructor for the Sax camp summer program led by Carl and Barbara Grubbs for the Contemporary Arts Inc, a 20+ year project. He has taught percussion to pre-teens and adolescents for more than two decades at the Music workshop. He has taught percussion for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Orchkids music program at Booker T. Washington Middle School for the Arts for the last ten years. Eric has been an adjunct faculty member at Peabody Conservatory and since 2020 at Towson University, teaching drum-set, voice, pop, jazz and Latin jazz ensembles.
Enthusiasm, seemingly boundless energy, a generous smile and deep commitment to the youth of Baltimore is what stands out about Eric Kennedy. His devotion is personal. Indeed, his deepest concerns come together in his current project, a jazz composition program for students 14-21, which he initiated with his late wife Lisa Weems Kennedy, and since her untimely demise has sustained in her honor.
By Don Palmer
