America’s loss was Europe’s gain. Kenny Drew’s move to Paris in 1961, and then to Copenhagen in 1964 proved to be permanent. Although he sacrificed much of the interest of an American jazz audience, he gained a wide following across Europe. Drew was a well-known figure on the Copenhagen jazz scene, but always remained somewhat underrated as a jazz pianist in the USA because of his absence.
His touch was described in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz as “precise,” and his playing as “a combination of bebop-influenced melodic improvisation and block chords, that included refreshingly subtle harmonizations”. You’ll hear typical examples of this (below) in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s It Might As Well Be Spring and (below that) in Sonny Rollins’ St. Thomas. Both were recorded in 1992 at the Brewhouse Theater in the UK. Kenny’s trio includes Alvin Queen on drums and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (NHOP) playing the double bass.
