Drew, Kenny

▪ 1994

      U.S.-born jazz pianist (b. Aug. 28, 1928, New York, N.Y.—d. Aug. 4, 1993, Copenhagen, Den.), was the centre of a largely black expatriate jazz colony that settled in Copenhagen in the 1960s. Drew began the study of classical piano at age five and attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City. He was early influenced by such pianists as Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, and Art Tatum and, later, by Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and throughout his career there were elements of both swing and bebop in his playing. During the 1950s Drew accompanied and recorded with several of the major jazz artists of the time. After a brief period on the West Coast, he went to Paris in 1961, and in 1964 he settled in Copenhagen, where he became house pianist at the Montmarte Jazzhus. There he began an association with the Danish bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, with whom he performed and recorded extensively. Drew later took up composing and orchestrating and was involved in music publishing and recording businesses. His son, Kenny Drew, Jr., also became a jazz pianist.

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