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THE BiTS INTERVIEW:Kenn Lending

Kenn Lending is a Danish blues musician from Vanloese, Copenhagen.

He has played with numerous artists such as Janice Harrington,
Lillian Boutté, Aron Burton, Louisiana Red, Memphis Slim and Luther
Allison.

Undoubtedly his long association with American blues pianist and

singer Champion Jack Dupree, stands at the peak of his musical liaisons.

Ian McKenzie spoke to him on the telephone at his home in
Copenhagen.

KL: Hello, this is Kenn.

BiTS: Kenn, hello. It's Ian McKenzie.

KL: Hey, how are you?

BiTS: I'm very well indeed, thank
you. Thank you for agreeing to
speak to me.

BiTS: Let me tell you what I want
to do. I would like to talk to you
about your career as a musician
and of course about working with
Jack Dupree as well.

KL: Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah.

BiTS: Let's start at the beginning.

How did you get into blues music
in the first place, Kenn?
KL: I think it was through some

friends I had when I was a kid, and
they had some parents that were
very into jazz. One of my friends,
his biological father was an
African American step dancer. His
stepfather was Kenny Drew, the
jazz pianist, and his grandpa was Leo Mathisen, the famous Danish jazz musician from the 40s.
So it was like these families were very into jazz. I’d tried to play music since I was very little, but
I started playing guitar when I was about nine years old, playing folk music like Bob Dylan and
Donovan and these songs for the guitar.

BiTS: I take it that was with an acoustic guitar?

KL: Yes, exactly. Not many people had an electric guitar at the time. I was listening to quite a bit
of jazz, and some blues music through an African American guy. He grew up in Denmark, he was
actually Afro-Danish if you can call it that. Sometimes he would visit his father and his siblings