Kenny Drew


Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew was an American-Danish jazz pianist.

Biography

Drew was born on August 28, 1928, in New York City, United States, and he received piano lessons from the age of five. He attended the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan. His first recording, in 1950, was with trumpeter Howard McGhee, and over the next two years Drew worked in bands led by Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Charlie Parker, among others.
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. He led many recording sessions throughout the 1950s, and appears on John Coltrane's 1958 album Blue Train.
Drew was one of the American jazz musicians who settled in Europe around this period: he moved to Paris, France, in 1961 and to Copenhagen, Denmark, three years later. While he sacrificed much of the interest of the American jazz audience, he gained a wide following across Europe. 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."
Drew and Dexter Gordon appeared on screen in Ole Ege's theatrically released hardcore pornographic film Pornografi – en musical, for which they composed and performed the score.
Drew died in August 1993 in Copenhagen, Denmark and he was interred in the Assistens Cemetery in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. A street is named after him in southern Copenhagen, "Kenny Drews Vej".
His son, Kenny Drew Jr., was also a jazz pianist.

Playing style

Drew's 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".

Discography

As leader/co-leader

Compilation
  • Solo-Duo – rec. 1966–83

    As sideman

With Tina Brooks
  • Back to the Tracks – rec. 1960
  • The Waiting Game – rec. 1961
With Clifford Brown
  • Best Coast Jazz
  • Clifford Brown All Stars – rec. 1954
With John Coltrane
  • High Step – rec. 1956
  • Blue Train – rec. 1957
With Kenny Dorham
  • Showboat
  • Whistle Stop – rec. 1960
With Art Farmer
  • Farmer's Market
  • Manhattan
With Dizzy Gillespie
  • The Giant
  • The Source
With Dexter Gordon
  • Daddy Plays the Horn
  • Dexter Calling... – rec. 1961
  • One Flight Up – rec. 1964
  • A Day in Copenhagen also with Slide Hampton
  • Some Other Spring also with Karin Krog
  • The Apartment
  • Swiss Nights Vol. 1 – rec. 1975
  • Swiss Nights Vol. 2 – rec. 1975
  • Swiss Nights Vol. 3 – rec. 1975
  • Landslide – rec. 1961-62
  • Both Sides of Midnight – rec. 1967
  • Body and Soul – rec. 1967
  • Take the "A" Train – rec. 1967
  • The Squirrel – rec. 1967
  • Loose Walk – rec. 1965
  • Misty – rec. 1965
  • Heartaches – rec. 1965
  • Ladybird – rec. 1965
  • Stella by Starlight – rec. 1966
  • Live in Tokyo 1975 – rec. 1975
With Ken McIntyre
  • Hindsight
  • Open Horizon – rec. 1965
With Jackie McLean
  • Jackie's Bag – rec. 1959–60
  • Bluesnik – rec. 1961
  • Live at Montmartre
  • A Ghetto Lullaby – rec. 1973
  • The Meeting also with Dexter Gordon – rec. 1973
  • The Source also with Dexter Gordon – rec. 1973
With Sonny Rollins
With Sonny Stitt
  • Kaleidoscope – rec. 1950
  • Stitt's Bits – rec. 1950
With Ben Webster
  • First Concert In Denmark – rec. 1965
  • Saturday Night At The Montmartre – rec. 1965. reissued as Stormy Weather
  • Sunday Morning At The Montmartre – rec. 1965. reissued as Gone with the Wind.
Wíth others