Norman Keenan

Who was Norman Keenan?

Norman Dewey Keenan was an American jazz double-bassist.

Keenan began on piano before picking up bass at age 15. He worked with Tiny Bradshaw, Lucky Millinder, Henry Wells, Earl Bostic, and Cootie Williams, and jammed at Minton's Playhouse around the same time. Following World War II he worked with Williams again and with Eddie Cleanhead Vinson in 1947-49. From 1949 to 1957 he was the bassist in the house trio at the Village Vanguard. After backing Harry Belafonte from 1957 to 1962 and working on the TV show Hootenanny, he began playing jazz again in the 1960s, with Count Basie and Roy Eldridge.