Kenneth Ascher

His work

Kenneth Lee Ascher, born in Washington, D.C. in 1944, is an American pianist, composer, and arranger working across jazz, rock, classical, and musical theater. He joined the Woody Herman Orchestra in 1966 as arranger and pianist, replacing Nat Pierce on the recommendation of Frank Foster. Ascher has been an ASCAP member since 1968. In 1977, he played piano on Dan Schafer's "Baby Now That I've Found You" for Tortoise International Records.

His career includes keyboard and string arrangement work on John Lennon's albums Mind Games, Walls and Bridges, and Rock 'n' Roll, as well as Yoko Ono's A Story. He contributed music to several songs from Barbra Streisand's A Star Is Born remake, where he also served as music coordinator, and arranged parts of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell. Ascher's own version of "Rainbow Connection" appeared in the closing credits of The Break-Up. He currently plays piano with the Birdland Big Band, which performs Fridays at Birdland in New York City; the band plays "Rainbow Connection" in an arrangement by Lew Anderson.

Critically acclaimed live performances

In February 1973, Ascher played piano with Marvin Stamm at Sam's Jazz Upstairs in New York City, with Bob Dougherty on bass and Ronnie Zito on drums. Stamm called it the best group of musicians he had been with in 21 years; New York Times critic John Stuart Wilson found the statement believable, calling the quartet the most exciting group to appear in New York in some time. In May 1973, the Kenny Ascher Trio performed Sundays at Jimmy Weston's in New York City. In December 2000, Michael Feinstein performed with a small swing band led by Kenny Ascher at the Regency in New York City. In July 2001, Jay Leonhart performed with Kenny Ascher and Michael Leonhart at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel.

Jingle writing

Ascher has composed or co-composed jingles for numerous clients, including the 1968 Baltimore Colts, FedEx, Pizza Hut (Class Act), Campbell's Soup (Never Underestimate the Power of Soup campaign), Diet Pepsi (Uh-Huh Blues – You've Got The Right One, Baby, with Ray Charles), American Dairy (Warm All Over), Coors Brewing Company, and Ford Motors (National Test Drive). Many of his jingle compositions were produced by Sunday Productions, published by Ahoskie Music, Inc., and licensed by ASCAP.

Academic education

Ascher holds three diplomas from Columbia University: a Bachelor of Arts (1966), a Master of Arts (1968), and a Doctor of Musical Arts (1971), all in music composition. At Columbia he studied composition with Otto Luening, Jack Beeson, and Vladimir Ussachevsky, and piano with William Albert Beller. He graduated as valedictorian from William F. Dykes High School in Atlanta and entered Columbia College on a math scholarship.