Undercurrent (Remastered) Kenny Drew

• 1Undercurrent07:19
• 2Funk-Cosity08:28
• 3Lion's Den04:55
• 4The Pot's On06:07
• 5Groovin' The Blues06:21
• 6Ballade05:31
• Total Runtime38:41

Info for Undercurrent (Remastered)

While he perhaps never achieved star status outside the jazz world, Kenny Drew was and remains one of the preeminent straight-ahead bebop pianists. While he has led a very active career, 1960's „Undercurrent“ was Drew's last album as a leader until the 1970's. In a way, „Undercurrent“ is the intersection of two very popular jazz groups of the day--Cannonball Adderley's (Sam Jones and Louis Hayes) and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (Hank Mobley and Freddie Hubbard), with Drew's keys and tunes the unifying voice. „Undercurrent“ is a fine, timeless mix of bop funk, fire, and finesse.

Kenny Drew, piano
Hank Mobley, tenor saxophone
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet
Sam Jones, acoustic bass
Louis Hayes, drums

Recorded at Van Gelder Studios in New York in 1960
Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder
Produced by Alfred Lion

Digitally remastered

Kenny Drew
was an underrated master of bebop. A brilliant pianist who started with the example of Bud Powell and then developed his own sound within the style, in the '50s Drew worked with the likes of Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Buddy DeFranco, Dinah Washington and Art Blakey. By 1960 when he recorded Undercurrent, Drew had already led ten albums of his own, mostly with duos and trios. Oddly enough he only had the opportunity to lead two albums in his life for Blue Note, an early effort from 1953 and the classic Undercurrent. Matched in a quintet with the young firebrand trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and the always-stimulating tenor-saxophonist Hank Mobley, the 32-year old pianist was ready to truly make his mark. All six compositions are his, and in his accompaniment of the passionate horn men and in his soulful solos, Drew shows that he was one of the major hard bop stylists. He would not make another album as a leader until 1973, nine years after he permanently moved to Europe, but Kenny Drew’s playing on Undercurrent, a superb and very well-recorded Blue Note album that is arguably his finest work, is timeless.

This album contains no booklet.