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Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew (August 28, 1928[1]– August 4, 1993)[2] was an American-Danish jazz pianist.
Drew was born on August 28, 1928, in New York City, United States,[1] and he received piano lessons from the age of five.[3] 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.[3]
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.[3] He led many recording sessions throughout the 1950s, also appearing on John Coltrane's 1958 album Blue Train.[1]
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.[3] 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.[1] "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."[4]
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.[5]
Drew died in August 1993 in Copenhagen, Denmark,[2] (he had stomach cancer, but it was unclear if this was the cause of death) and was interred in the Assistens Cemetery in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. A street is named after him in southern Copenhagen: "Kenny Drews Vej" (lit.'Kenny Drew's Road').[6]
His son, Kenny Drew Jr., was also a jazz pianist.[1]
Drew's style 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".[3]
Compilation