Music database

Musician

Kenny Drew

Kenny Drew - © http://drlarryross.bizland.com (worth a visit)

born in 1958 in New York City, NY, United States

died on 4/8/1993 in Kopenhagen, Hovedstaden, Denmark

Kenny Drew

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew (August 28, 1928 – August 4, 1993) was an American jazz pianist.

Biography

Drew was born in New York City in 1928 and received piano lessons from the age of five.[1] He attended The High School of Music & Art in Manhattan. Drew's first recording, in 1950, was with Howard McGhee, and over the next two years he worked in bands led by Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Charlie Parker, among others.[1] After a brief period with his own trio in California, Drew returned to New York, playing with Dinah Washington, Johnny Griffin, Buddy Rich, and several others over the following few years.[1] He led many recording sessions throughout the '50s, and in 1957 appeared on John Coltrane's album Blue Train.

Drew was one of several American jazz musicians who settled in Europe around this period: he moved to Paris in 1961 and to Copenhagen three years later.[1] While he sacrificed much of the interest of the American jazz audience, he gained a wide following across Europe. Kenny Drew was a well-known figure on the Copenhagen jazz scene, recording many sessions with the Danish bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. "Living in Copenhagen, and travelling out from there," Drew remarked, "I have probably worked in more different contexts than if I had stayed in New York where I might have got musically locked in with a set-group of musicians. This way, I have been able to keep my musical antennas in shape, while at the same time I have had more time to study and also get deeper into my own endeavors."[2]

Drew and Dexter Gordon appeared on screen in Ole Ege's theatrically released hardcore pornographic film Pornografi – en musical (1971), for which they composed and performed the score.[3]

Drew died in 1993 and was interred in the Assistens Cemetery in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. He has a street named after him in southern Copenhagen, "Kenny Drews Vej" (Eng., Kenny Drew Street).

His son, Kenny Drew Jr., was also a jazz pianist.

Playing style

His touch was described in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz as "precise", and his playing as being a combination of bebop-influenced melodic improvisation and block chords, including "refreshingly subtle harmonizations".[1]

Discography

As leader

  • 1953: New Faces, New Sounds (Blue Note)
  • 1954: Kenny Drew and His Progressive Piano (Norgran); also released as The Modernity of Kenny Drew and The Ideation of Kenny Drew
  • 1955: Talkin' & Walkin' (Jazz: West)
  • 1956: Embers Glow (Jazz: West) with Jane Fielding
  • 1956: Kenny Drew Trio (Riverside)
  • 1957: A Harry Warren Showcase (Judson)
  • 1957: A Harold Arlen Showcase (Judson)
  • 1957: I Love Jerome Kern (Riverside)
  • 1957: This Is New (Riverside)
  • 1957: Pal Joey (Riverside)
  • 1960: Undercurrent (Blue Note)
  • 1973: Duo (SteepleChase) with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
  • 1973: Everything I Love (SteepleChase)
  • 1974: Duo 2 (SteepleChase) with NHØP
  • 1974: Dark Beauty (SteepleChase)
  • 1974: If You Could See Me Now (SteepleChase)
  • 1974: Duo Live in Concert (SteepleChase) with NHØP
  • 1975: Morning (SteepleChase)
  • 1977: In Concert (SteepleChase)
  • 1977: Lite Flite (SteepleChase)
  • 1977: Ruby, My Dear (SteepleChase)
  • 1978: Home Is Where the Soul Is (Xanadu)
  • 1978: For Sure! (Xanadu)
  • 1981: It Might as Well Be Spring (Soul Note)
  • 1981: Havin' Myself a Time (Soul Note) with Kim Parker
  • 1981: Your Soft Eyes (Soul Note)
  • 1982: Playtime: Children's Songs by Kenny Drew and Mads Vinding (Metronome) with Mads Vinding
  • 1982: The Lullaby (Baystate)
  • 1982: Moonlit Desert (Baystate)
  • 1983: Swingin' Love (Baystate)
  • 1983: And Far Away (Soul Note)
  • 1983: Fantasia (Baystate)
  • 1984: Trippin' (Baystate)
  • 1985: By Request (Baystate)
  • 1985: By Request II (Baystate)
  • 1986: Elegy (Baystate)
  • 1987: Dream (Baystate)
  • 1989: Recollections (Timeless) with NHØP, Alvin Queen
  • 1993: At the Brewhouse (Storyville) with NHØP, Alvin Queen
  • 1996: Solo-Duo (Storyville) with NHØP, Bo Stief

As sideman

With Gene Ammons

  • Goodbye (Prestige, 1974)

With Svend Asmussen

  • Prize/Winners (1978)

With Chet Baker

  • (Chet Baker Sings) It Could Happen to You (1958)

With Art Blakey

  • Originally (Columbia, 1956 [1982])

With Tina Brooks

  • Back to the Tracks (Blue Note, 1960)
  • The Waiting Game (Blue Note, 1961)

With Clifford Brown

  • Best Coast Jazz (EmArcy, 1954)
  • Clifford Brown All Stars (EmArcy, 1954 [1956])

With John Coltrane

  • High Step (Blue Note, 1956 [1975])
  • Blue Train (Blue Note, 1957)

With Ted Curson

  • Plenty of Horn (Old Town, 1961)

With Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis

  • All of Me (SteepleChase, 1983)

With Kenny Dorham

  • Showboat (Time, 1960)
  • Whistle Stop (Blue Note, 1961)

With Teddy Edwards

  • Out of This World (SteepleChase, 1980)

With Art Farmer

  • Farmer's Market (New Jazz, 1956)
  • Manhattan (Soul Note, 1981)

With Dizzy Gillespie

  • The Giant (America, 1973)
  • The Source (America, 1973)

With Dexter Gordon

  • Daddy Plays the Horn (1955)
  • Dexter Calling... (Blue Note, 1961)
  • One Flight Up (Blue Note, 1964)
  • Loose Walk (SteepleChase 1965 [2003])
  • Misty (SteepleChase, 1965 [2004])
  • Heartaches (SteepleChase, 1965 [2004])
  • Ladybird (SteepleChase, 1965 [2005])
  • Stella by Starlight (SteepleChase, 1966 [2005])
  • The Squirrel (Blue Note, 1967 [1997])
  • Both Sides of Midnight (Black Lion, 1967 [1981])
  • Body and Soul (Black Lion, 1967 [1981])
  • Take the "A" Train (Black Lion, 1967 [1988])
  • A Day in Copenhagen (MPS, 1969) with Slide Hampton
  • Some Other Spring (Sonet, 1970) with Karin Krog
  • The Apartment (SteepleChase, 1975)
  • Swiss Nights Vol. 1 (SteepleChase, 1975 [1976])
  • Swiss Nights Vol. 2 (SteepleChase, 1975 [1978])
  • Swiss Nights Vol. 3 (SteepleChase, 1975 [1979])

With Grant Green

  • Sunday Mornin' (Blue Note, 1961)

With Johnny Griffin

  • Blues for Harvey (SteepleChase, 1973)

With Ernie Henry

  • Presenting Ernie Henry (Riverside, 1956)

With Ken McIntyre

  • Hindsight (SteepleChase, 1974)
  • Open Horizon (SteepleChase, 1976)

With Jackie McLean

  • Jackie's Bag (Blue Note, 1960)
  • Bluesnik (Blue Note, 1961)
  • Live at Montmartre (SteepleChase, 1972)
  • A Ghetto Lullaby (SteepleChase, 1974)
  • The Meeting (SteepleChase, 1974) with Dexter Gordon
  • The Source (SteepleChase, 1974) with Dexter Gordon

With Ray Nance

  • Huffin'n'Puffin' (1971)

With Rita Reys

  • The Cool Voice of Rita Reys (Columbia, 1956)

With Sonny Rollins

  • Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet (Prestige, 1951)
  • Tour de Force (Prestige, 1956)
  • Sonny Boy (Prestige, 1956 [1961])

Wíth Sahib Shihab

  • Sentiments (Storyville, 1971)

With Sonny Stitt

  • Kaleidoscope (Prestige, 1950 [1957])
  • Stitt's Bits (Prestige, 1950 [1958])

With Toots Thielmans

  • Man Bites Harmonica! (Riverside, 1957)

With Ben Webster

  • Stormy Weather (1970)

With Tiziana Ghiglioni

  • Sounds Of Love (Soul Note, 1983)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Feather, Leonard, & Ira Gitler (2007). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, Oxford University Press.
  2. ^ February 1976 liner notes to Morning by Jørgen Frigård.
  3. ^ Jazz on the Screen.

External links

This page was last modified 22.04.2018 16:39:03

This article uses material from the article Kenny Drew from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.