Kenny Drew Trio (Mono 2025 Remaster) Kenny Drew with Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones

• 1 Caravan (Mono 2025 Remaster) 04:49
• 2 Come Rain Or Come Shine (Mono 2025 Remaster) 06:01
• 3 Ruby, My Dear (Mono 2025 Remaster) 05:38
• 4 Weird-O (Mono 2025 Remaster) 03:58
• 5 Taking A Chance On Love (Mono 2025 Remaster) 04:35
• 6 When You Wish Upon A Star (Mono 2025 Remaster) 05:11
• 7 Blues For Nica (Mono 2025 Remaster) 05:23
• 8 It's Only A Paper Moon (Mono 2025 Remaster) 06:21
• Total Runtime 41:56

Info for Kenny Drew Trio (Mono 2025 Remaster)

The American-Danish pianist was long considered underrated, as this 1956 album demonstrates. The album is also notable for its enviable rhythm section of bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones, who, like Drew, would later play with Coltrane.

The trio comes together so soothingly on tracks like the breathless bop of "Caravan" (a Duke Ellington gem) and the cool, swinging "Blues for Nica," a tribute to Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, the famous jazz patroness from the Rothschild family. If you want to get going and wind down in under an hour, this is the album for you.

"Drew’s second original “Blues For Nica” is funky and evocative. Drew’s soulful elocution and notation are powerful and the trio makes another nimble transition into gentle swing mode. Chambers glows on a more traditional solo. The finale (“It’s Only A Paper Moon”) reinvents a vintage pop standard as a jazz statement. A furious arrangement showcases Drew’s technical mastery and moody resonance. His intensity and precision (with many soulful accents) are impressive. He and Jones exchange with alacrity. It is complex and accessible. The Kenny Drew Trio is an excellent addition to the Original Jazz Classics. This is a high-level piano trio defining the artistic imprint of 50’s jazz. Highest recommendation!" (Robbie Gerson, audaud.com)

Kenny Drew, piano
Paul Chambers, double bass
Philly Joe Jones, drums

Digitally remastered

Kenny Drew (1928-1993)
was a top-notch bebop pianist influenced by Bud Powell who developed his own approach, fitting easily into hard-bop settings.

Drew began playing piano when he was five and within three years had given a recital. He made his recording debut with trumpeter Howard McGhee in 1950 and was in great demand during the decade. Drew had the opportunities to work with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Buddy DeFranco, Dinah Washington, Art Blakey, Buddy Rich, and his own trios.

During 1956-1957, Drew recorded several worthy sets for the Riverside and Judson labels, music that has been reissued in the Original Jazz Classics series. Kenny Drew Trio teams him with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones for six standards (including an early version of Thelonious Monk’s “Ruby, My Dear”) and his two originals “Weird-O” and “Blues for Nica.” Plays the Music of Harry Warren and Harold Arlen, duet dates with bassist Wilbur Ware, feature Drew’s interpretations of a dozen songs apiece by Warren and Arlen, the complete contents of two former LPs. This Is New teams Drew in a quintet with such up-and-coming hard-boppers as trumpeter Donald Byrd and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley. Drew’s final Riverside date as a leader, Pal Joey, has the pianist, Wilbur Ware, and Philly Joe Jones performing five songs written by Rodgers and Hart for the play Pal Joey plus three earlier numbers that were included in the film including “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “I Could Write a Book.”

In 1961, Drew moved to Paris, relocating permanently to Copenhagen three years later. He was well documented by the SteepleChase label in the 1970s and stayed very active up until the time of his death in 1993. His son, Kenny Drew, Jr, emerged in the 1990s as one of jazz’s top pianists.

This album contains no booklet.