Brushes & Brass

Some pretty slick playing here from Clark Terry and Alvin Queen:



Alvin's not a drummer that I'm terribly familiar with but I think he's lived in Europe for a number of years and has released a number of nice recordings as a leader lately. From discussions with several older musicians during my time in Montreal, I'm led to believe that Queen spent some time on that scene as well many years ago.

I heard Alvin backing up Oscar Peterson at New York's Birdland in 2004 with a stellar band that included Peterson with Alvin Queen on drums, Ulf Wakenius on guitar and the legendary Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass. Alvin swung very mightily that evening and started with a very hard swinging and groovy drum solo to begin the show while the band, one at a time, made their way from the dressing room to the stage. That was the only time I heard Oscar Peterson play live and it was certainly a show that checked off an entry on my jazz bucket list !