Kenny Drew Trio - Dark Beauty (1975 Japanese SteepleChase Vinyl LP)

Vinyl: NM
Sleeve: EX
Obi: None

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Kenny Drew Trio - Dark Beauty | Vinyl LP - 1975 Japanese SteepleChase (UPS-2152-S, Teichiku Records Co. Ltd.)

Kenny Drew moved to Copenhagen in 1964 and effectively never returned to New York, becoming one of the central figures in the Danish jazz scene. He settled into a regular role as house pianist at the Montmartre Jazzhus, where he worked alongside Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and, when he was in Copenhagen, drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath. The trio that emerged from that arrangement was not assembled for the occasion — it was the product of years of shared work, and its recordings for Nils Winther's SteepleChase label in 1974 document it at its most comfortable and precise.

Drew, NHOP and Heath recorded at Rosenberg Studio on May 21 and 22, 1974. Freddy Hansson engineered. Four of the eight tracks are Drew originals. "Run Away" is uptempo and hard-driving. "Dark Beauty," the ballad that gives the album its title, moves between composed melody and open improvisation — Drew later published the manuscript. "Silk Bossa" shifts into a different rhythmic feel. "Blues Inn" closes the set. "All Blues" is Miles Davis's modal piece from Kind of Blue (1959), taken here in trio format without the blowing context of the original. "Summer Night" is the Harry Warren and Al Dubin standard. "It Could Happen to You" is the Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen piece from And the Angels Sing (1944). "Love Letters" is Victor Young and Edward Heyman's 1945 ballad.

NHOP was twenty-three. He had been performing at the Montmartre since his mid-teens and was already regarded as one of the most gifted bassists in jazz. Albert Heath, the youngest of the three Heath brothers, brought a warm, unhurried approach that suited the trio's character throughout.