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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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11
Album Review

Fred Hersch: The Surrounding Green

Read "The Surrounding Green" reviewed by Doug Collette


Taken together, Fred Hersch's first two albums for ECM Records can be seen as a bid for recognition as the preeminent pianist in contemporary jazz. The solo work of Silent, Listening (ECM, 2024) complements the trio work on The Surrounding Green, their individual and combined impact heightened by release on the vaunted label in successive years. As much as the former depicts Hersch's touch for nuance, the latter is a display of the equally subtle mutual empathy he ...

13
Album Review

Fred Hersch: The Surrounding Green

Read "The Surrounding Green" reviewed by Jack Kenny


Fred Hersch's The Surrounding Green , his third release for ECM Records, is a testament to the art of the piano trio, combining lyrical introspection with sophisticated interplay. Recorded in May 2024 at Lugano's Auditorio Stelio Molo under Manfred Eicher's meticulous production, the album features Hersch on piano, Drew Gress on double bass and Joey Baron on drums. Their decades-honed chemistry gives the album musical maturity, creating a sound that is both intimate and expansive. The album's seven ...

15
Album Review

Fred Hersch: The Surrounding Green

Read "The Surrounding Green" reviewed by Neil Duggan


In a world where turmoil arrives almost instantly via notifications on our devices, a Fred Hersch album feels like sanctuary--an invitation to slow down and listen deeply. The Surrounding Green, his third release for ECM, once again finds the pianist in tandem with producer Manfred Eicher, the ideal partner to bring focus to the pianist's gentle improvisational and instrumental artistry. Widely regarded as one of jazz's most distinctive and enduring voices, Hersch's creative vision has influenced the genre ...

9
Album Review

Phil Haynes: Return to Electric

Read "Return to Electric" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Phil Haynes, a drummer who possesses an extensive and heralded resume, unleashes Return to Electric, a semiavant-garde fusion-fueled romp that feels like a love letter to the electric guitar's golden era, delivered with a sly wink. This album displays Haynes, guitarist Steve Salerno, and bassist Drew Gress capturing the experimental spirit of 1970s jazz-rock while demonstrating their mastery over modern styles. Haynes provides near-flawless support, punctuated by colorific cymbal accents, off-kilter deviations and polyrhythmic fills. The trio kicks ...

Album Review

Jason Robinson: Ancestral Numbers

Read "Ancestral Numbers" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Unica seduta di registrazione dal 23 al 25 agosto 2023, due CD, Ancestral Numbers I e Ancestral Numbers II, usciti a qualche mese di distanza, stessa fonte di ispirazione--il ricordo della nonna materna e la sua influenza nella famiglia--stessa ricerca di relazioni tra numeri, genealogie e storie dettate dallo scorrere del tempo. È questa la prima parte di un progetto musicale pensato da Jason Robinson nel quale una serie di composizioni sarà pensata per appositi organici strumentali. Sassofonista e flautista ...

5
Album Review

Phil Haynes: Return to Electric

Read "Return to Electric" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The band Return to Forever was a seminal jazz fusion group led by pianist Chick Corea. The eponymous first album, on ECM Records, was released in 1972, opening doors for scores of other like-minded ensembles. Electricity was a main aspect of the move away from acoustic jazz. The Fender Rhodes piano and plugged-in bass and guitars of fusion took hold and, to some degree, seemed to be ushering the old (acoustic) guard out the door. But that did ...

2
Album Review

Marc Copland Quartet: Dreaming

Read "Dreaming" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Si pone per così dire al centro del guado questo quartetto del settantaseienne pianista di Filadelfia Marc Copland, qui (il quartetto) al suo secondo album dopo Someday (2022, stessa etichetta). Il guado è la centralità dell'idioma jazzistico proposto, in bilico (in equilibrio, forse più correttamente) fra rispetto per il déjà écouté, tratti originali e sete di ricerca. Qui, magari, le percentuali pendono più verso il primo aspetto che verso gli altri due, però tutto è condotto in porto con estremo ...

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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

Dreaming

Innervoice Jazz
2025

buy

Return to Electric

Corner Store Jazz
2025

buy

Day Dream

Corner Store Jazz
2024

buy

Exuberance

Tonal Conversations
2024

buy

Law Years

From: The Surrounding Green
By Drew Gress

Lotus on Irish Springs

From: Return to Electric
By Drew Gress

Perdido

From: Day Dream
By Drew Gress

Sweet Tooth

From: Ancestral Numbers II
By Drew Gress

Second House

From: Ancestral Numbers I
By Drew Gress

In Winter Blooms

From: Exuberance
By Drew Gress

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: Day Dream
By Drew Gress

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