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Drew Gress

Bassist/composer Drew Gress performs extensively with artists on the cutting edge of contemporary improvised music. His latest project as a leader, 7 BLACK BUTTERFLIES (Premonition Records), features 9 of Drew¹s newest original compositions and will be released in MAY 2005. This is the follow up to 2001's SPIN & DRIFT, which received widespread critical acclaim and also featured Drew's pedal-steel guitar playing. He also leads the quartet Jagged Sky; their debut recording, HEYDAY(Soul Note) was released in 1998 and is now considered somewhat of an underground classic. Previously, he was a founding member of the cooperative quartet Joint Venture, producing three albums in the early 1990s for Enja: Joint Venture, Ways, and Mirrors.

When Drew is not leading his own ensembles, he can be heard within those of Ralph Alessi, Tim Berne, Don Byron, Uri Caine, Bill Carrothers, Ravi Coltrane, Marc Copland, Fred Hersch, John Hollenbeck, Andy Laster, Tony Malaby, Mat Maneri, Simon Nabatov, Ben Perowsky, and Tim Ziesmer.

(In a previous musical life, he grounded the performances of Buddy Hackett, Phyllis Diller, Zoot Sims, Cab Calloway, and yes...Pia Zadora).

Drew has toured North, South, and Central America, Europe, and Asia, and has served as Artist-in-Residence at St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia and at the University of Colorado-Boulder. The Gaurdian selected a concert given by his Spin & Drift quartet as London's Best Jazz Concert for 2002, and in the same year he received a SESAC Composer's Award; this in addition to previous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Meet the Composer. He currently resides in New York.

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5
Album Review

Eva Novoa: Novoa / Gress / Gray Trio, Vol. 1

Read "Novoa / Gress / Gray Trio, Vol. 1" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


A vivid sense of drama and its intrinsic, minute shadings of light upon dark places animate pianistEva Novoa's work. Barcelona bred and keening with Brooklyn bravura, Novoa swaps the fore and backgrounds with uncompromised glee. Expressionistic, Impressionistic, and forthright, she aligns and upsets the edges to her liking. That, along with the crackling, crosstown chi of bassist/modular synthesist ((Drew Gress}} and drummer Devin Gray makes music like “Miss Celebrity," “Sushi at 6," in fact the whole of Novoa/Gress/Gray Trio, Vol. ...

16
Album Review

Sylvie Courvoisier: Chimaera

Read "Chimaera" reviewed by Troy Dostert


It says something about pianist Sylvie Courvoisier's current profile in creative jazz that she could assemble such a distinguished ensemble for her latest release, Chimaera. Augmenting her usual trio of bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen are trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and Nate Wooley, and with the always interesting Christian Fennesz completing the group on guitar and electronics, one would expect extraordinary results. And so they are--worthy of a lengthy, two-CD treatment, in fact. Courvoisier's work with ...

7
Liner Notes

George Colligan: Ultimatum

Read "George Colligan: Ultimatum" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


Unlike classical music, where so much of the performance is based on an authentic interpretation of the material, jazz has always been more about inventiveness and the musician's quest to find an original voice. Additionally, some of the most innovative artists in the genre have been known not only for their instrumental prowess, but also for great bodies of work that have substantially contributed to the jazz annals. Men like Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, and Thad Jones, to name only ...

40
Liner Notes

Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World

Read "Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Russian-born pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff began setting verses from the Bible's Book of Psalms shortly after her conversion to Christianity, even before her emigration to the United States. But she waited until she had considerable experience working with jazz musicians before producing her jazz arrangements. They were first recorded on her album Better Than Gold and Silver [L&H Production, 2018], which presented ten Psalm settings in both vocal and instrumental versions. The detailed story of how Yelena Eckemoff came to set ...

9
Album Review

Marc Copland Quartet: Someday

Read "Someday" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Marc Copland is a former saxophonist who found his instrument artistically confining for the purposes of expressing his vision. So he called on his childhood piano training (synaptic memories intact) to make the switch to the keyboard. The results have been magic. His artistry with the 88s is second only to the late Bill Evans, and an argument for his surpassing of Evans could be made. His discography boasts more than forty albums as a leader, beginning in 1988 with ...

14
Album Review

Fred Hersch: Breath By Breath

Read "Breath By Breath" reviewed by John Chacona


Why is Fred Hersch not sufficiently mentioned among the great jazz pianists? It could be a generational thing. At 66, Hersch is an eminent tweener, too old to qualify as the Hot New Thing and too young to be an Elder Statesman. He's in good company there with fellow sexagenarians Myra Melford, Satoko Fujii, Uri Caine, Jean-Michel Pilc and Matthew Shipp. It's true that Hersch's contemporaries Geri Allen, Mulgrew Miller and Kenny Kirkland have entered the pantheon (and Frank Kimbrough ...

5
Album Review

Fred Hersch: Breath By Breath

Read "Breath By Breath" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


The intellectual and musical curiosity that inspires the work of pianist Fred Hersch is broad and deep. Validation of this is in his current release Breath By Breath which is informed by his early piano education and listening to string quartets, supported more recently by his advocacy of meditation as a way manage external factors beyond one's control. In the liner notes, Hersch encourages listeners to take the time to attend the eight-movement “Sati Suite" in ...

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1

Recording

Pianist/Composer Randy Ingram Set To Release His Most Personal & Enlightening Recording To Date, "The Wandering" Featuring Bassist Drew Gress

Pianist/Composer Randy Ingram Set To Release  His Most Personal & Enlightening Recording To Date, "The Wandering" Featuring Bassist Drew Gress

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Available on Sunnyside Records – April 21, 2017 CD Release Celebration – April 19, 2017 @ The Jazz Gallery, NYC! Pianist-composer Randy Ingram has put himself in a position to reveal more about his musical identity by scaling down to record The Wandering, a sophisticated, personal and enlightening duo album with bassist Drew Gress. While other instrumentalists can choose a different mouthpiece or effects pedal to modulate and personalize their sound, pianists must develop their identity by how and what ...

1

Performance / Tour

Michael McNeill With Drew Gress & Phil Haynes Tonight In Brooklyn

Michael McNeill With Drew Gress & Phil Haynes Tonight In Brooklyn

Source: Michael McNeill

Michael McNeill’s trio with the bassist Drew Gress and the drummer Phil Haynes explores the pianist’s original compositions, which range from lyrical ballads, to hard-driving jazz, to avant-garde soundscapes. Gress and Haynes are a seasoned rhythm team — their collaboration goes back nearly three decades, and they appear together on some 18 albums — and with McNeill they push and pull the pianist’s music in new directions. Over the past four years McNeill has become an integral part of the ...

Event

Angles Of Repose, Featuring: Mat Maneri, Drew Gress, Lucian Ban, Randy Peterson

Source: Lwm

Brooklyn, NY: The palimpsestic Series, curated by Oscar Noriega, presents “Angles of Repose” featuring Mat Maneri, Viola, Drew Gress, Bass, Lucian Ban, Piano and Randy Peterson, drums, October 24, 8pm at Barbes, Park Slope Brooklyn. Angles, always presented as a quartet led by Maneri and Ban, will be presenting new music for this performance. “Angles of Repose” is the continuation of a musical rapport developing between violist Mat Maneri and pianist Lucian Ban which features an ever changing roster of ...

193

Performance / Tour

Jane Ira Bloom, Fred Hersch, Drew Gress at Philoctetes Center on December 14th

Jane Ira Bloom, Fred Hersch, Drew Gress at Philoctetes Center on December 14th

Source: All About Jazz

Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, pianist Fred Hersch, & bassist Drew Gress present a performance/ discussion on “Jazz Improvisation: The Art of the Ballad" at The Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination in NYC on Sunday Dec 14 at 2:30 pm. The Center is located at 47 East 82nd Street, 
3rd Floor, NYC. Phone: 646-422-0544. Events at Philoctetes are free and open to the public. Seating is on a first come basis. The Philoctetes Center 247 ...

108

Radio

Drew Gress Featured on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross and in the NY Times!

Drew Gress Featured on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross and in the NY Times!

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Bassist/Composer Drew Gress ON TOUR In Support + Celebration of The Irrational Numbers, His Third Album for Premonition “Much as Gress likes aggressive playing, he doesn't deny his love of good melody. On The Irrational Numbers, the way he plays those tendencies off each other may be one more way he defeats expectations. But it's not like musicians have to choose. Why not have it all?" - Kevin Whitehead on NPR's Fresh Air “If there's still any line in the ...

121

Performance / Tour

Assist/Composer Drew Gress on Tour in Support + Celebration of the Irrational Numbers

Assist/Composer Drew Gress on Tour in Support + Celebration of the Irrational Numbers

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Bassist/Composer Drew Gress ON TOUR In Support + Celebration of The Irrational Numbers, His Third Album for Premonition “Much as Gress likes aggressive playing, he doesn't deny his love of good melody. On The Irrational Numbers, the way he plays those tendencies off each other may be one more way he defeats expectations. But it's not like musicians have to choose. Why not have it all?" - Kevin Whitehead on NPR's Fresh Air “If there's still any line in the ...

152

Recording

Premonition Records Releases New Album from Bassist/Composer Drew Gress

Premonition Records Releases New Album from Bassist/Composer Drew Gress

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Premonition Records Releases New Album, The Irrational Numbers, From Bassist/Composer Drew Gress Third Gress Album for Premonition In Stores February 19, 2008 Premonition Records is proud to announce the release of The Irrational Numbers, by bassist/composer Drew Gress. With The Irrational Numbers, his third for Premonition, Gress adds another stellar album to his already impressive discography of smart and uncompromising modern jazz. The album features the same core group of players who appeared on Gress' previous Premonition album, ...

154

Performance / Tour

Drew Gress and 7 Black Butterflies at The Jazz Gallery - Friday, June 10

Drew Gress and 7 Black Butterflies at The Jazz Gallery - Friday, June 10

Source: All About Jazz

RED CAT PUBLICITY J A S O N B Y R N E 415 85th Street, #3R, Brooklyn, New York, 11209, Tel 718 921 1330, Email [email protected] PREMONITION RECORDS ANNOUNCES A NEW ALBUM FROM DREW GRESS GRESS TO CELEBRATE RELEASE WITH JUNE 10 PERFORMANCE AT THE JAZZ GALLERY 7 BLACK BUTTERFLIES In stores NOW (release date was May 24, 2005) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Premonition Records announces the May 24, 2005 release of a new album from New York bassist/composer Drew ...

Huw V Williams
bass, acoustic
Jaehyun Cho
bass, acoustic

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Coda(s)

Corner Store Jazz
2023

buy

Chimaera

Intakt Records
2023

buy

Breath By Breath

Palmetto Records
2022

buy

I Am a Stranger in...

L&H Production
2022

buy

Someday

InnerVoiceJazz
2022

buy

To Swing or Not

From: Coda(s)
By Drew Gress

Something

From: Something
By Drew Gress

The Miss

From: For Now
By Drew Gress

Beloved Refracted

From: Originals (Day Dream)
By Drew Gress

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