Mahogany Finds a Double Rainbow

© 1993 Kathy Feist

Kevin Mahogany

It's rare for anyone to stumble across a double rainbow, an indicator of good luck, and rarer yet to not become excited about it. But that is just the case with local vocalist Kevin Mahogany who has released his debut recording Double Rainbow on an international recording label.

When the folks from the German-based Enja records called to tell the Kansas City vocalist that they wanted to sign him to a three-year contract, Mahogany's reaction was rather cool. A little too cool. They had to call back a couple of times just to make sure Mahogany understood their intent.

"I was as excited as I usually get," says a stone-face Mahogany, "which is not very anymore. In this business you learn nothing's complete until it's completed."

But while Mahogany was low-key about the good news, his girlfriend Allene Matthews was ecstatic. The two had scrimped together their last dime, including the rent money, on a hunch. Mahogany knew the moment was right to go knocking on doors in New York. "I told Allene I was coming back with a record deal," says Mahogany. His hunch proved to be right.

In October, Mahogany spent ten days meeting with different record companies. On his last day in town Mahogany received a call from Gust Tsilis, an Enja representative and acquaintance. Tsilis told him that the owner of Enja records, Matthias Winkleman, had just arrived from Germany and could he meet them at a small restaurant in Greenwich Village in an hour? Mahogany put together his promotional pack, met the record producer, told him he would like to sing bop, ballads and bluesy jazz, and then left to prepare for his plane ride back to Kansas City.

From that last chance meeting came the phone call only days later. Mahogany was told to choose any performers he wanted for the rhythm section.

"A recording is really a snapshot of your career... of how you are at a particular time. And you hope the next album will be better, and each one after that progressively better." -- Kevin Mahogany

Double Rainbow, which was recorded in February, is fine tuned with some of the best performers in the business: Kenny Barron on piano, Ray Drummond on bass, Lewis Nash on drums, and Ralph Moore on saxophone. The 13-song collection, due out June 20, includes the title cut "Double Rainbow," "Since I Fell For You," "Confirmation," Duke Ellington's "Sound of Love," Thelonious Monk's "Pannonica," Miles Davis' "All Blues," and an original tune written by Mahogany and local pianist Paul Hofmann, "Three Little Words."

"It came together really well," says Mahogany. "I'm pretty pleased with it."

If the Enja recording can be likened to the first half of Mahogany's double rainbow, then the album Dangerous Precedent, also due out this summer, must be the second.

Dangerous Precedent is pianist Frank Mantooth's big band project recorded on the Sea Breeze label. Mahogany, the featured vocalist, scats on "Moonlight in Vermont" and sings the blues on "In the Evening."

Although both recordings introduce the Kansas City vocalist to the world market, Mahogany remains undaunted. "This has been a goal I've set for myself," he explains. "Therefore it's not a surprise. I've had this goal since I got into music. I just didn't know when I'd reach it."

"I don't want this to sound like an ego trip or something," he continues. "It's not. It's just like anyone: you have to have confidence in your abilities to reach the goals you've set for yourself."

Mahogany has had plenty of influence when it comes to setting goals. His mother strongly encouraged musical skills, taking piano lessons along with her three small children. "In our household," says Mahogany, "music was as essential as English and math."

Mahogany first started setting his goals when he began playing the saxophone in junior high school. He studied the instrument under the tutelage of saxophonist Ahmad Alaadeen at the Charlie Parker Academy. At 12, Mahogany began playing saxophone professionally with Eddie Baker's New Breed Orchestra.

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"Kevin shows great promise... He's got that big full voice and great timing for jazz. And he's the best scatter I've ever heard." -- Ginney Coleman, jazz DJ.

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In college, Mahogany began honing his vocal skills and stage presence. After receiving a degree in Fine Arts from Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas, Kevin set out for graduate school at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX. After losing everything he owned in a fire his first year there, he returned to Kansas City.

In 1981 at the age of 24, Kevin Mahogany put down his saxophone for the last time and began concentrating on a singing career. He founded his group "Mahogany and the Apollos" which performed rhythm and blues, jazz, and popular music. Eventually the group became simply "Mahogany" and gained a regular following over a 10-year span. The group, consisting of Bob Blount, Jay Eudaly, Phil Brenner, Thomas Walker, and Jack Mulligan, was disbanded in 1991.

It was around this time that Mahogany began toying with other prospects in the music industry. He booked national artists, such as vocalist Kevyn Lettau, trumpeter Rony Guerrero, and guitarist Barney Kessell, into local clubs.

"I wanted to bring in people who I thought the other musicians would be interested in and who other people might want to come and hear," he says. "I wanted to bring in someone different. There are a lot of good musicians here, but usually at the clubs you hear the same ones."

Visiting musicians happened to be another kind of ticket for Mahogany, but not as a booking agent.

The Montana-based NRE Trio heard Kevin sing at local club and asked him to tour with them. The NRE Trio had backed touring jazz artists Emily Remler, Hank Crawford, and David "Fathead" Newman when they performed in Kansas City. In the winter of 1991-92, Mahogany performed eight concerts with the trio in Montana. A live recording resulted from the tour.

It was also from being impressed with Mahogany's performance at a local club that Frank Mantooth asked the vocalist to record with his band that same winter in Chicago.

Mahogany's recent success stemming from these kinds of encounters comes as no surprise to local jazz fans, many of whom are wowed by his powerful, deep baritone voice.

"Kevin shows great promise," says local jazz DJ Ginney Coleman. "He' got that big full voice and great timing for jazz. And he's the best scatter I've ever heard. The stuff he does on 'A-Train' knocks me out."

Because educating young students about jazz is a high priority with Kevin Mahogany, he is working on a plan to tour national black and/or small colleges to share his knowledge of the music. He has already given a concert and clinic at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg and was a featured guest artist at the University of Kansas Jazz Festival.

"There is no use in holding back information as jazz artist," he says. "What good is it doing me if I don't share it?"

Next spring he will be recording his second album for Enja. In May, Mahogany will most likely be touring Germany with one of the national radio bands which give live concerts on Dutch radio and television.

Kevin also hopes to continue booking outside jazz acts to the local clubs as well as touring and composing. But most of all he hopes to keep improving himself.

"A recording is really a snapshot of your career," he says, "of how you are at a particular time. And you hope the next album will be better, and each one after that progressively better."

"I feel pleased with (the recording)," he says. "It's indicative of how I sound right now. But I want to grow and change some more."

A snapshot of Mahogany right now might show him, as luck would have it, standing under a double rainbow. But next year, with time and valuable experience on his side, Mahogany will be making a name for himself somewhere over the rainbow.

But that's another song, and another story.


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