Mart Kenney

Mart (Herbert Martin) Kenney was born in Toronto on March 7,1910. Kenney, an alto and baritone saxophonist and clarinetist who played during the late 1920s in the CJOR radio orchestra. Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen, Canada’s leading dance band in the 1930s and 1940s was formed in 1931 for an engagement at Vancouver’s Alexandra Ballroom. The band made its radio debut in 1934 on CJOR and made its CRBC debut taking the ‘The West, a Nest and You, Dear’ as its theme-song. Engagements followed at CPR hotels, including the Hotel Vancouver, where the band’s most popular CRBC/CBC program, ‘Sweet and Low,’ began in 1935. It began recording for RCA and by 1951 it had made some 25 78s for its Victor and Bluebird labels. Relocating in 1940 in Toronto, broadcasts were picked up by CBS or the NBC ‘Blue’ network and in Britain by the BBC. During four cross-Canada tours the band was heard broadcasting from army camps and war plants. After 1949, Mart Kenney’s Ranch, a dance hall near Woodbridge north of Toronto, was the site of the band’s CBC broadcasts. Kenney continued to tour into the 1960s until his retirement to Mission, BC in 1969 when the band broke up. Thereafter Kenney organized orchestras for CBC TV, and engagements throughout the Vancouver area. Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen made a special impact on the Canadian public and achieved popularity in the USA through their recordings and broadcasts. He died in 2006.