Kenneth Arthur McIntyre, known professionally as Ken McIntyre and later Makanda Ken McIntyre, was born on September 7, 1931, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was a jazz musician, composer, and educator. He began playing bugle at age eight, followed by piano, and discovered saxophone at nineteen. After serving in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1955, McIntyre studied at the Boston Conservatory. His first recordings as a leader were Stone Blues and Looking Ahead, released in 1961 with Eric Dolphy. Throughout his career, he collaborated with notable figures such as Bill Dixon, Jaki Byard, and Cecil Taylor. In 1971, McIntyre founded the first African American Music program at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury. He changed his name to Makanda Ken McIntyre in the early 1990s after a performance in Zimbabwe. McIntyre passed away on June 13, 2001, in New York City.
