Kenny Drew - Undercurrent
Released - May 1961
Recording and Session Information
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 11, 1960
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Hank Mobley, tenor sax; Kenny Drew, piano; Sam Jones, bass; Louis Hayes, drums.
tk.3 The Pot's On
tk.7 Lion's Den
tk.11 Groovin' The Blues
tk.16 Ballad
tk.19 Undercurrent
tk.22 Funk-Cosity
Session Photos
 |
| Kenny Drew |
Photos: Francis Wolff
Track Listing
| Side One | ||
| Title | Author | Recording Date |
| Undercurrent | Kenny Drew | 11 December 1960 |
| Funk-Cosity | Kenny Drew | 11 December 1960 |
| Lion's Den | Kenny Drew | 11 December 1960 |
| Side Two | ||
| The Pot's On | Kenny Drew | 11 December 1960 |
| Groovin' the Blues | Kenny Drew | 11 December 1960 |
| Ballade | Kenny Drew | 11 December 1960 |
Liner Notes
Back in January of 1950, Kenneth Sidney Drew made his first appearance on record. Howard McGhee was the leader and the other featured soloists were Brew Moore and J. J. Johnson. One of the six sides released was I'll Remember April. The label, in addition to stating "Howard McGhee's All Stars", further read, "Introducing Kenny Drew". This was Drew's spotlight number and as with many other important jazz debuts, the label was Blue Note.
Later, in 1953, Kenny made his first album as a leader. Again it was Blue Note who recorded him, this time in a trio with Curly Russell and Art Blakey. A 10-inch IP, it was composed mainly of standards. In the late 1950s. Drew again appeared on Blue Note in a key-sideman role on the significant Blue Train by John Coltrane. Now, the wheel has come full circle and Kenny is leading his own quintet for the label which gave him his start, eleven years ago.
There has been quite a development by him through the years, from a young, exciting, relatively unpolished player to a mature soloist. I say relatively because even at the time of his first recording. Drew had reached a professional plateau. But then he was a boy and now he is a man. That this man has lost none of his youthful intensity, or effectiveness in communicating emotion, is strongly evident in this set.
Drew was born in New York City in August of 1928. At the age of 5, he began studying classical piano with a private teacher and at 8, gave a recital. This early background is similar to that of Bud Powell, the man who later became his main inspiration as a jazz pianist. It explains why Kenny has always had a strong pianistic approach; that is to say, his articulation, touch and general dynamics are the equipment of a keyboard artist, not a piano pounder. Yet with his abundant technique, he has remained a solid jazz player, not an empty embroiderer. And while he can swing as hard as anyone, Kenny Drew also has a lot of romance in his soul.
After digging Fats Waller, at 12, and then Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson, Drew attended the High School of Music and Art. While furthering his education at former Mayor La Guardians pet institution he was known as a hot boogie woogie player but passed through this phase before graduation.
Kenny's first professional job was as accompanist at Pearl Primus' dance school. At the same time, he was alternating with Walter Bishop Jr. in a neighborhood band that included Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean and Art Taylor. In this period, he used to hang-out on 52nd Street to listen to Charlie Parker and Powell and began sitting in at various jam sessions around town. I remember how he impressed me, the first time I heard him at a private session, playing with Zoot Sims and Gerry Mulligan in the summer of 1949.
After his recording debut. Drew worked with jazz greats Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Charlie Parker at various times in 1950-51. Then, in 1952-3, he played with Buddy De Franco's quartet before settling in California. He worked both in Los Angeles and San Francisco before returning to the East as Dinah Washington's accompanist in March of 1956. From the spring of 1957, when he worked with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for two months, until June of 1958, when he joined Buddy Rich, Kenny free-lanced around New York with Coltrane, Donald Byrd and Johnny Griffin. He left Rich in March of 1959 and that summer headed his own trio at the Cork 'N Bib in Westbury, L. I. In the fall, he moved his base of operations to Florida, working again in a trio context in Miami and Pensacola.
1960 found him back in New York. He appeared at the Jazz Artists Guild festival at Newport and also at the same organization's presentation in an East Side theater. Those who ventured to the short-lived club. Jazz City, U.S.A. in Greenwich Village, heard him perform brilliantly with Kenny Dorham's quartet. When, in 1961, Freddie Redd left for England to play in the London production of The Connection, Kenny took his place in the New York cast.
Playing the piano excellently is not Drew's only accomplishment. On that first recording date with McGhee, five out of the six numbers were originals. Four of them were written by Kenny. Here, all six selections are his. Two, Punk-cosity and The Pot's On were written for Buddy Rich. The other four were penned especially for this date.
The quintet that plays Drew's music here had never worked as a unit before the recording but the tremendous cohesion and spirit far outdistances many of today's permanent groups in the same genre. Of course, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes have been section mates in Cannonball Adderley's quintet since 1959 and this explains their hand-in-glove performance. With Drew, they combine to form a rhythm trio of unwavering beat and great strength.
The two hornmen are on an inspired level throughout. Hank Mobley has developed into one of our most individual and compelling tenor saxophonists. His sound, big and virile, seems to assert his new confidence with every note. Mobley has crystallized his own style, mixing continuity of ideas, a fine sense of time and passion into a totality that grabs the listener and holds him from the opening phrase.
Freddie Hubbard is a youngster but his accomplished playing makes it impossible to judge him solely from the standpoint of newcomer. This is not to say that he is not going to grow even further as a musician but that he has already reached a level of performance that takes some cats five more years to reach. Others never even get there. This is the second opportunity Blue Note listeners have had to hear Hubbard and Mobley in tandem. The first time was in Freddie's Goin' Up.
The insinuating pattern that Drew rumbles under the statement of the horns explains the name of the opening, title-number Undercurrent The tremendous excitement starts right there and bursts into full flame with Mobley's solo. The level of intensity continues right through the fiery Hubbard, fantastically fleet (but meaty) Drew and the exchanges with the intelligently explosive Hayes. Undercurrent sets a standard that is maintained throughout the album. It gets you into a good groove and the group keeps you there until you are gently placed into reflective calm by the poignant Ballade.
Like Undercurrent, Funk-cosity is a minor key song but of different character. The tempo is medium and the groove is natural funk. This time Hubbard leads off and Mobley is second. Both sing out loud and clear in logically developed, warmly felt solos. Drew shows that he has absorbed the stylistic changes that Horace Silver brought about during the last decade without radically altering his own personality.
Lion's Den has no connection with the Bennie Harris exposition on the changes of Perdido that Vie Dickenson recorded for Blue Note in the '40s. Lion's (Alfred) den was then on Lexington Avenue; now it is on West 61st Street. This is a happy swinger which utilizes interludes of suspended rhythm to add contrast and, thereby, impetus to each solo.
Mobley's tenor springs right out of the ensemble on The Pot's On as complete master of the beat. Each soloist is given a little send-off as Drew uses the horns to re-charge the batteries as it were. The intensity of the rhythm section is strongly evident here. Drew is masterful as the ideas flow from his fingers in a manner that leaves no doubt that he is in complete control of the situation at all times. Groovin' The Blues is a minor-key blues that is jazz-strength personified. The free, exuberant, shouting quality that each soloist embodies really hits you in heart, head and feet. Jones' short bit is his only solo of the date.
Kenny begins the lovely Ballade (written "for a certain young lady") with an out of tempo introduction. Hubbard carries the exquisite melody and then Kenny has the stage all to himself. His solo, which makes full use of both hands, is extremely lyrical and continually touching. Hubbard returns and the two horns then join to close with piano and Jones' bow underneath them.
Drew's reflections on the current scene, indicative of where his heart is, are worth noting. He likes Horace Silver and Wynton Kelly very much. McCoy Tyner is his favorite among the newer pianists and he also has good things to say about Bobby Timmons. Miles Davis and Kenny Dorham get his hearty approval. He "digs the direction" that Coltrane is taking and regrets Sonny Rollins' absence from the scene.
If you have never heard Kenny Drew play, these preferences may give you an idea of where he is, generally speaking. To really hear "where it is," just listen to his piano. It speaks volumes.
-IRA GITLER
Cover Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER
Sam Jones performs by courtesy of Riverside Records. Louis Hays performs by courtesy of Vee-Jay Records.
RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes
A NEW LOOK AT UNDERCURRENT
Kenny Drew led a peripatetic life in the 1950s, working from various corners of the US. Ira Gitier's focus on Drew's history with Blue Note in the original notes should not, however, be read to suggest that he was not otherwise documented during the decade. His early work with Buddy DeFranco brought the pianist into contact with producer Normann Granz, who produced two Drew trio sessions for Norgran on the heels of the 1953 Blue Note trio session. The West Coast years found Drew establishing working relationships with Dexter Gordon and Sonny Criss and recording as both leader and sideman for the Jazz West where among other projects he joined three-fifths of the original Miles Davis Quintet under the leadership of Paul Chambers. On his return to New York he served as something of a house pianist for Riverside Records in 1956—8, a stint that produced six albums under Drew's name, including three composer songbook duos with bassist Wilbur Ware.
Drew's appearance on the September 1960 session that comprises part of the Jackie McLean album Jackie's Bag was the pianist's first appearance on record in nearly two years, and it launched a cycle of extensive studio activity on Blue Note (with McLean. Tina Brooks, Kenny Dorham, Dexter Gordon, and Grant Green) and elsewhere (with Dorham, Johnny Coles, and Ted Curson). Dorham's Showboat (Time Records), recorded two days before the present music, probably gives a good indication of the Jazz City band that Gitler mentions, albeit with Jimmy Heath's tenor added to make the group a quintet. All of these sessions find Drew in strong form. but none provides as much insights into his strengths as both pianist and composer as Undercurrent.
In the 11 years that separated his debut with Howard McGhee from the present music, Drew had allowed the speed, phraseology, and foundation in classical music that him such a natural Bud Powell disciple to merge, while his touch added a more personal character to the resulting solos. By remaining open to new trends such as the funk elements of Horace Silver's writing and the modal notions Miles Davis spotlighted on Kind of Blue without simply wallowing in shallow imitation, Drew also kept his style fresh without abandoning its core principles.
His comprehensive modernism is emphasized by the original music he created Undercurrent. The title track picks up on the newly popular modal style, with the twisting piano figure serving as counterpoint to the horn lead before asserting itself over pedal point on the bridge. "Funk-cosity" shows the contrasting mark of Silver in both the piano solo and the tune's overall presentation With bold introduction and interlude, cut-time groove, tart modulations, and rift-heavy phraseology. "Lion's Den" also does pedal point tension and release å la Horace, while the funk feel of "Groovin' the Blues" may also owe something to a Freddie Redd tune like "Wigglin"' from The Connection. "The Pot's On" finds Drew imparting distinctive character to standard changes, while "Ballade" displays a boldness in melody and coloration already evident in such earlier Drew originals as "Contour."
A program this substantial deserved a band of like quality, which Drew and Blue Note assembled for this project. It includes a resplendent Hank Mobley, settling into his great middle period and on the cusp of joining Miles Davis' band, where he would delve deeper into the scalar structures in likes of "Undercurrent." Freddie Hubbard, still a relative newcomer but gaining a reputation rapidly, was in the midst of establishing that no setting was too challenging for his confident horn, whether it be as Mobley's frontline counterpart on Roll Call or in the Ornette Coleman Double Quartet heard on Free Jazz, each of which was recorded in the weeks surrounding the present music. Mobley and Drew already had a history dating back to Art Farmer's Farmer's Market album on New Jazz and Drew's own This Is New (the sole Riverside label appearance by the much-recorded Mobley). Hubbard and the Sam Jones/Louis Hayes rhythm tandem were newer acquaintances, but work with the leader like the most venerable of old friends.
While the quality of this album and Drew's other appearances of the time should have established him as one of the more prominent piano voices in the music, the uncertainties and indignities of the jazz scene in America turned them instead into a false start and, for far too long, what seemed like a premature career coda. By the end of 1961, Drew had relocated to Europe, where he would spend the final three decades of his career. The '60s found him working extensively on the continent in support of such other expatriates as Gordon (with whom he made his final Blue Note appearance on One Flight Up), Johnny Griffin, Stuff Smith, and Ben Webster: but it was not until 1973 and the beginning of an important relationship with Denmark's SteepleChase label, that Drew's name would again appear on a record as leader.
— Bob Blumenthal, 2006
