Al Dreares

This drummer was a childhood friend of trumpeter Fats Navarro in Key West, FL, shedding immediate light on Al Dreares’ kind of jazz: superior, straight-ahead hard bop without either pretension or commercial gloss. Dreares’ name isn’t in the pantheon of best drummers in his genre: despite his organizations with Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, etc, his discography is normally a trifle lacking supplying a full-scale smorgasbord. In an interval of 2 decades from the middle-’50s, Dreares documented just 16 different periods, this pile put into slightly with the afterwards issuing of live shows including a established with Gillespie on the Newport Jazz Celebration. What there is certainly of Dreares on record continues to be sufficient to create hipsters rotating with debate. Which, in the end, was the hippest tempo section that drummer performed in in this marvelous period of hard bop and contemporary jazz? The ones that enjoy the dark aspect would say it’s the use pianist Mal Waldron and bassist Julian Euell, specially the edition of Waldron’s ballad “Still left Alone” offering Jackie McLean on alto saxophone. For pure golf swing, nevertheless, the bouquet would need to be transferred to the beautiful trio with pianist Freddie Redd and bassist George Tucker. Also, few listeners would deny the greatness of pianist and bandleader Randy Weston’s recordings with Dreares and Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass. The drummer’s dad was a trumpet participant who prompted Dreares to review formally at NY City’s Hartnett Conservatory. From 1953, Dreares gigged for quite some time in the Paul Williams music group — no regards to the diminutive pianist and pop vocalist — before connecting using the jazz top notch, including guitarist Kenny Burrell, alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce, and these Mingus. From the past due ’50s Dreares was leading a few of his personal groups aswell as having a baby to unforgettable piano trio jazz with bandleader Phineas Newborn. In the ’60s and ’70s the drummer frequently worked similarly with a relatively even more fiery pianist, Don Pullen. Drumming acknowledged to Al Drears is definitely the task of Dreares having a lacking E, but gleam pianist called Al Drears who’s of no regards to the drummer.