Kenny Rankin › Similar Artists

Michael Franks - 75% match to Kenny Rankin

18 September 1944, La Jolla, California, USA. As a young teenager, Franks began singing to his own guitar accompaniment. He drew his eclectic repertoire from a broad field including folk music and aspects of the blues. He also began composing in the blues idiom, performing his own work and also hearing it picked up by other musicians. By the 70s Franks had become a well-know Read more

Patti Austin - 49% match to Kenny Rankin

10 August 1948, New York City, New York, USA. Austin first sang on stage at the age of three at the famous Apollo Theatre in New York City during Dinah Washington’s set. As a child performer, she appeared on television, including Sammy Davis Jnr.’s programme, and in the theatre. Her stage work included Lost In The Stars and Finian’s Rainbow. At the age of nine Read more

Gino Vannelli - 47% match to Kenny Rankin

Stephen Bishop - 43% match to Kenny Rankin

14 November 1951, San Diego, California, USA. While he had mastered both piano and trombone, it was an older brother’s gift of an electric guitar that launched a vocational flight whereby an unprepossessing, bespectacled 14-year-old became a highly popular songwriter of US pop. In 1967, he formed his first group, the Weeds, who recorded some Beatles -inspired demos in L Read more

Livingston Taylor - 42% match to Kenny Rankin

21 November 1950, Boston, Massachusetts, but raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. Taylor was one of five brothers and sisters, four of whom also played guitar and sang. After a troubled adolescence, Taylor turned to music for therapy. He graduated to playing coffee houses in Boston, where he attracted the interest of rock critic Jon Landau. His first two albums for Ph Read more

Al Kooper - 39% match to Kenny Rankin

5 February 1944, Brooklyn, New York, USA. Kooper embarked upon a professional music career in 1959 as guitarist in the Royal Teens, who had enjoyed a novelty hit the previous year with ‘Short Shorts’. He became a noted New York session musician and later forged a successful songwriting partnership with Bobby Brass and Irwin Levine. Their collaborations included
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Nicolette Larson - 39% match to Kenny Rankin

17 July 1952, Helena, Montana, USA, d. 16 December 1997, Los Angeles, California, USA. Larson moved to California where she became a member of touring roadbands with Hoyt Axton and Commander Cody. By the 70s she had become established as a session singer and appeared on albums by Emmylou Harris (Luxury Liner), Linda Rondstadt (Mad Love) and Neil Young (American Stars And Bar Read more

Bobby Caldwell - 38% match to Kenny Rankin

15 August 1951, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. Bobby Caldwell first hit the US pop charts with the self-penned jazz ballad ‘What You Won’t Do For Love’, which reached number 9 in early 1979. He played all the instruments on his self-titled album, which featured the tracks ‘Take Me Back To Then’, a rhythmic, slow chugger, and the ballad  Read more

Alex Bugnon - 37% match to Kenny Rankin

10 October 1958, Montreux, Switzerland. From a very early age Bugnon was exposed to the sounds of jazz, owing to his home town’s internationally famed festival. He was influenced by the numerous noted jazz musicians who visited the festival, notably Herbie Hancock with whom he formed an early friendship. As Bugnon’s piano playing skills developed, he went to Paris Read more

Joe Sample - 37% match to Kenny Rankin

Joseph Leslie Sample, 1 February 1939, Houston, Texas, USA. While still at high school, Sample co-founded a group that would dominate his working life. Known from 1960 as the Jazz Crusaders, the band, with its core of Sample on piano, Wayne Henderson, Wilton Felder and Nesbert ‘Stix’ Hooper, produced a series of popular albums that helped to define the term ‘s Read more

Harpers Bizarre - 33% match to Kenny Rankin

Evolving from Santa Cruz band the Tikis, the original Harpers Bizarre emerged in late 1966 with a line-up comprising Ted Templeman (Theodore Templeman, 24 October 1944, Santa Cruz, California, USA; lead vocals/guitar), Dick Scoppettone (b. 5 July 1945, California, USA; vocals/guitar), Dick Yount (b. 9 January 1945, California, USA; vocals/bass), Eddie James (b. California, U Read more

Tania Maria - 32% match to Kenny Rankin

Correa Reis Maria, 9 May 1948, São Luis, Maranhao, Brazil. An excellent pianist, powerful singer and enchanting live performer, Tania Maria combines in her staccato vocal style the rhythmic virtues of bebop and Latin dance, with a strong commitment to spontaneity. She learned classical piano at first, discovered the work of Nat ‘King’ Cole and Oscar Peterson Read more

Marcos Valle - 30% match to Kenny Rankin

14 September 1943, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Following in the wake of João Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, Marcos Valle is one of the second wave of early bossa nova composers, straddling both the traditional bossa nova world and lighter pop jazz fusion. One of Brazil’s best-known singer-songwriters, Valle has recorded numerous albums since the 60s, and his Samb Read more

David Benoit - 27% match to Kenny Rankin

Bakersfield, California, USA. Benoit gained an early appreciation of music from his parents, who played guitar and piano. He began piano lessons at the age of 14, by which time he was steeped in the influences of both Ramsey Lewis and Henry Mancini. Following his musical studies at El Camino College, he met with composer Richard Baskin and played piano on the movie soundtra Read more

Earl Klugh - 27% match to Kenny Rankin

16 September 1953, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Jazz guitarist Klugh has an unorthodox style in that when he sits down he rests the guitar on his right knee instead of the left. After studying piano and nylon string guitar as a child, Klugh settled on the latter instrument. While still in his mid-teens he recorded with Yusef Lateef and George Benson, with whom he also toured. He Read more