Beat Kennel was born in Zurich in June 1945. His father Moritz Kennel, was a well-known children's book illustrator and Beat grew up with his 4 brothers in Zurich-Witikon in an independent artistic environment. His musical basis was the American entertainment jazz in the early 50s, such as Satchmo, Ella, Basie etc. In the late 50s, the concert, modern jazz was added, such as Miles, Mingus, Rollins, Trane etc. This sound definitely “socialized” him musically and consequently for life.
In 1962 he attended the Art School Zurich (teacher: Hansjörg Mattmüller – later F+F) and then completed a four-year graphic design apprenticeship at the advertising agency Jean Wild AG (later Interwerba AG).
From 1962 he started playing the drums and from 1964 he joined the Marcel Bernasconi Trio and the guest solists Fredy Meier and Jürg Grau.In 1967 an EU trio tour D, B, DK, CH followed. The Bernasconi-Meier-Hartmann-Kennel Quartet won the first prize for European amateur jazz formations in 1967 at the Bilzen Festival in Belgium.
In autumn 1967 he moved to Copenhagen for 16 months to work as a graphic artist, he also played with various young musicians (Mads Vinding, Torben Kjær, Lars Togeby, Torben Hertz, etc.). He took brief drum lessons with Albert “Tootie” Heath and was a lively visitor to the trendy jazz club “Jazzhus Montmarte”. Here he came up with the idea of doing something similar in Zurich.
In 1969 he founded the music organization Bazillus in Zurich with Marcel Bernasconi. A few concerts followed and in 1970 the open-air festival in Zug. Bernasconi then got out.
1970–2014 he worked together with his long-time partner, the Danish singer and illustrator Anne Christiansen, as independent illustrators (Atelier Kennel-Christiansen / Keecee Illustrators) for the advertising world. Until the nineties Anne was one of the big internal Bazillus supporters until the nineties and took financial responsibility for 50% of all intern project deficits.
From 1971 onwards, Beat realized groundbreaking concerts with the Danish composer Ole Thilo, such as the “Wiebelfetzer Workshop 1+2+3”. In 1971 “Kreismusik” with a total of 50 musicians, 4 stages, conductor and audience in the middle. Special Guest’s: Jean-Luc Ponty, John Surman, Barre Phillips, Pierre Favre a.o.
In 1972 Beat Kennel and the longstanding co-initiator, advertising specialist Dieter Schärer, presented the «Ein Bazillus für Zürich» to the press for the first time. So in 1974 the first clubs followed in a cellar, the “Bazillus Workshop 1” on Albisriederplatz (74–79), the “Bazillus Workshop 2” on Ausstellungsstrasse (1979–2004), and the «Bazillus Musikrestaurant» on Stampfenbachstrasse (80–82) and the “Bazillus Hotel Hirschen” on Hirschenplatz (84–87).
From 1988–2004, Kennel organized legal and semi-legal venues (speak easy), official concerts, festivals and music productions under the name “B-Flat” I+II+III, which led finally to the last “Bazillus ad hoc live club” (2004-2013) at Ausstellungsstrasse 21.