Kenny Drew band members
Kenny Drew (piano)
Alvin Queen (drums)
Niels-Henning Oersted Pederson (bass)

Red Rodney band members
Red Rodney (flugelhorn)
Roy Haynes (drums)
Frank Morgan (tenor sax)
Monty Alexander (piano)
Rufus Reid (bass)


This six-part series commemorates some of the great jazz names who died in the early 1990s: Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Drew, Red Rodney, Stan Getz, Willie Dixon, Dexter Gordon and Art Blakey.

Each programme consists of two quarter-hour performances from one of them. No opinion, no commentary, no analysis - just great music. Which is, we're sure, just as they'd want it.

Kenny Drew Sr (1928-93)
A talented bop-based pianist (whose son is now a renowned jazz pianist in his own right), Kenny Drew Sr featured in 1950s sessions with Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Milt Jackson, and many others. He moved to Paris in 1961 and Copenhagen in 1964, forming a productive duo with Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson.

Red Rodney (1927-94)
A bebop trumpet player, Rodney started out with Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Rich and Woody Herman, but sprang to prominence with the Charlie Parker Quintet. His work with Parker led to him being featured on the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood's film 'Bird'.