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Musician-Songwriter Kenny Rankin Dies
9-Jun-2009
Written by: John Winn
Was one of the guitarists’ on Dylan’s 1965 album “Bringing It All Back Home“.
According to Daily Variety, musician and songwriter Kenny Rankin died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of complications related to lung cancer.
At the time of his death, he was preparing to record an album of new material with legendary producer Phil Ramone. The sessions were promptly canceled.
"That he was still at the top of his game is one of the saddest parts of his passing for me," said Denny Stilwell, president of Mack Avenue Records in a statement released Tuesday.
Born in New York City on February 10, 1940, Rankin was raised in the city's Washington Heights neighborhood, an hardscrabble immigrant community, then as now. Growing up in the borough, he was exposed to a variety of music, from jazz to pop to the traditional music of the predominantly Jewish households of the Heights. These influences later made their way into his own music, which incorporated elements of all three.
After a chance encounter with a fourth grade teacher at the public school he attended, Rankin's musical path was set. He signed on to Decca Records in the late 1950's while he was still a teenager. He released a handful of singles on the label to mixed reviews.
A fortuitous decision to sign on to Columbia Records brought him face to face with a then-unknown singer from Hibbing, Minn., by the name of Bob Dylan. Together, the troubadour and the guitarist would collaborate on several albums, most notably Dylan's 1965 record Bringing It All Back Home.
Following the success of the seminal album, Rankin released a slate of successful albums throughout most of the 1960's and 70's, including his 1967 debut Mind Dusters.
A frequent guest on "The Tonight Show", his knowledge of music--and his own virtuosity--impressed Carson so much that he wrote the liner notes to Mind Dusters.
During the last years of his life, Rankin managed to carve a niche for himself, touring the country playing the jazz standards that inspired him as a young adult.
Rankin was 69.
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