Jazz Birthday: Kenny Drew (1928)

Why highlight jazz musicians? To contrast what free people can accomplish peacefully as against the daily negative reports that can wear us down. Jazz arose freely, has developed and spread freely, carries an implicit message of freedom, expresses both individuality and cooperation within artistic frameworks, and touches many different peoples.

Kenny Drew began playing classical piano at age 5 and gave a recital at age 8, later attending The High School of Music & Art in New York City. The earliest recording introducing him playing jazz is a 1950 album with Howard McGhee (BLP5012), in which he plays in a sure light-touched and graceful style with right hand long-lined bop improvisations. Later he would appear on many albums as leader and sideman, such as on John Coltrane’s Blue Train. He spent the better part of his later career in Copenhagen. One critic writes of his music: “Kenny Drew had a marvellous sense of harmony, phrasing and timing on the piano. Whether he lingered on a note, or let it pass by in a wisp, the impression was delectable. His touch was magic. Drew’s early influences were Fats Waller, Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson, all of whom he encapsulated in his playing even as he went on to develop a vocabulary of his own.” Here he plays with fabulous bassist Niels-Orsted Henning Pedersen and drummer Alvin Queen. The tune is “Blues in the Closet” by Oscar Pettiford. [Thanks to Jim McElroy for the correction.]

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4:49 am on August 28, 2012