Winding was born inAarhus, Denmark.[2] His father, Ove Winding was a naturalized U.S. citizen, thus Kai, his mother and sisters, though born abroad were already U.S. citizens. In September 1934, his mother, Jenny Winding, moved Kai and his two sisters, Ann and Alice. Kai graduated in 1940 fromStuyvesant High School in New York City and that same year began his career as a professional trombonist with Shorty Allen's band. Subsequently, he played withSonny Dunham andAlvino Rey,[2] until he entered theUnited States Coast Guard duringWorld War II.
After the war, Winding was a member ofBenny Goodman's orchestra, thenStan Kenton's.[2] He participated inBirth of the Cool sessions in 1949,[3] appearing on four of the twelve tracks, whileJ. J. Johnson appeared on the other eight, having participated on the other two sessions.
In 1954, at the urging of producerOzzie Cadena, Winding began a long association with Johnson,[2] recording trombone duets forSavoy Records, thenColumbia. He experimented with instruments in brass ensembles. The albumJay & Kai + 6 (1956) featured a trombone octet and thetrombonium. He composed and arranged many of the works he and Johnson recorded.
During the 1960s, Winding began an association withVerve Records and producerCreed Taylor. He released the first version of "Time Is On My Side" in 1963 before it was recorded byIrma Thomas andThe Rolling Stones. His best selling recording from this period is "More," the theme from the movieMondo Cane, which reached number 8 in theBillboard Hot 100 and remained his only entry here.[4] Arranged and conducted byClaus Ogerman, "More" featured what is probably the first appearance of the French electronic music instrument theondioline on an American recording. Although Winding was credited with playing the ondioline, guitarist Vinnie Bell, who worked on the session, claimed that it was played byJean-Jacques Perrey, a pioneer of electronic music. Winding experimented with ensembles again, recorded solo albums, and one album of country music with theAnita Kerr Singers. He followed Creed Taylor toA&M/CTI and made more albums with J. J. Johnson. He was a member of the all-star jazz groupGiants of Jazz in 1971.[2]
His son, Jai Winding, is a keyboardist who has worked as a session musician, writer and producer inLos Angeles.[5]
Kai Winding was taken to a hospital because of a reoccurring brain disease that he found out about while in Yonkers, New York, and later died from complications there sometime in 1983.[6]
^"'my name is pronouncedKai as infly,Winding as in woodwind,' he toldCrescendo International, though not unreasonably many people mispronounced Kai to rhyme with Jay" (i.e.,/ˈkeɪ/, presumably because Winding's partnership withJ. J. Johnson led the pair to be nicknamed "Jay and Kai" in the titles of multiple albums).[1]
^Jeske, Lee; Kernfeld, Barry"Winding, Kai".The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2nd ed.). Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
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