Shannon Kennedy

By Jonathan Widran, National Jazz Author

Like a lot of her fellow students at Cal State Long Beach, Shannon Kennedy is eagerly looking forward to graduating this spring with her Bachelor’s in Music Performance. But even as she considers her options for grad school, the 21-year-old, Orange County, California based musical dynamo is caught up in an exciting whirlwind mode, developing one of contemporary music’s most extraordinarily multi-faceted careers as a composer, producer, performer, independent recording artist and music instructor.

Best known to audiences throughout Southern California as a powerhouse saxophonist, the wildly ambitious multi-talented musician has added numerous instruments to her palette,
including piano, pennywhistle and even Native American flute. On her upcoming fifth self-produced recording Behind Your Eyes, Shannon is also stepping out more than ever before as a compelling lead vocalist.

Since performing on the 2007 Brian Culbertson All-Star Cruise with some of urban jazz’s best known performers—including Culbertson, Craig Chaquico, Boney James, Candy Dulfer, Eric Darius, Nick Colionne, Michael Lington and Gerald Albright—Shannon has become a major presence in the genre. She has played a key role as a featured saxophonist and member of the horn section on tour with Peter White throughout California and Nevada and also played with him at his show following the 2008 Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards in Ontario. She will also appear on the acoustic guitar superstar’s upcoming debut on Peak Records. Last February, she performed with Chaquico at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

White and veteran saxman Greg Vail made guest appearances on her popular 2007 release Never My Love, and her 2008 holiday themed CD Almost That Time of the Year features White, Colionne, trumpet great Greg Adams and famed Special EFX guitarist Chieli Minucci. Even before the official release of Almost That Time..., the project’s high spirited title track was receiving airplay on the O.C. college jazz station KSBR, the rock station 101.3 KATY in Temecula and on Power 88 (KCEP 88.1), the big urban station in Las Vegas.

Her expansion into the rock and urban markets with this breakthrough vocal tune builds on her enormous popularity in the jazz world via live solo performances at hotspots like Antonucci’s in Mission Viejo and the Temecula club The Merc, where she plays straight-ahead jazz. She also has played venues like Anaheim’s House of Blues with the popular O.C. based Sade tribute band Taboo, with whom she also shot a TV pilot. While showcasing her talents on all four saxes (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone) and flute, her early 2007 album Steppin’ Up hinted at all of the diversity to come, with forays into pop, blues, funk, gospel, old school pop-soul and even more exotic influences like calypso, tango and bossa nova. She’s developed her world music chops further by doing workshops and playing with the Southern California based flamenco-global fusion band Incendio.

“I never get tired of traveling and playing music for people in various settings,” Shannon says. “Nothing is more fun than going on tour. When I was 15, I went to an arts high school and we did shows all around the country… Still, as much as I enjoy performing onstage and with different artists and groups, my first love is the studio. I love writing, recording and putting songs together. I get seriously depressed when I’m away from that environment too long. It all goes back to my deep love of the creative process.”

While continuing to developing her career as a solo artist and performer, she is also busy working on numerous extracurricular activities, writing and producing with pop/rock artists like emerging singer songwriter Tony Clements and writing and performing soundtrack and pop/contemporary music on her favorite new instrument, the piano.

Like so many great jazz musicians, Shannon is also giving back by becoming a well known and top notch educator in her own right. She has performed and taught students at Blythe High School (near the California/Arizona border), Newhart Middle School in Mission Viejo and Serrano Intermediate School in Lake Forest, where she imparted her skills on sax, flute and oboe. “I don’t see teaching as just a way to make extra money while I pursue my other endeavors,” Shannon says. “I genuinely enjoy working with kids, and I see so much of myself in them. It’s fun teaching them!” Shannon also designs and hosts teenjazz.com, the world’s largest website for young musicians.

Growing up in Southern Orange County, Shannon Kennedy gravitated to the pop sounds of everyone from Tracy Chapman and Jewel to Donna Lewis and Duran Duran while trying out a variety of different instruments. At six, she picked up her first acoustic guitar and aspired to be the next Chapman or Jewel, then later, encouraged by her grandmother, started playing the piano. Kennedy also did backup vocals for local and school mu