Alvin Queen

Alvin Queen ( born August 16, 1950 in Bronx, New York ) is an American drummer of modern jazz.

Queen, who comes from a working class family, earned the money for the drum lessons as a shoeshine boy. The age of twelve he was involved in a recording records. Horace Silver caught up with him in 1968 in his band. Then played Queen with George Coleman, Randy Weston, Milt Jackson, George Benson, and especially Charles Tolliver, with whom he visited Europe in 1971. After another tour of Europe in 1978, he moved to Geneva and worked from there with Jimmy Woode, Jay McShann, Harry Sweets Edison, Pharoah Sanders, Junior Mance and Johnny Griffin. Since 1980, he was with his own groups on the road, which included musicians such as Dusko Goykovich, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Terence Blanchard and John Hicks. Queen also acted in Robert Altman's film Kansas City with. Afterwards he appeared regularly with the band of Bennie Wallace, but also with the Radio Big Band of Belgrade, Dee Dee Bridgewater, the trio of Jesper Thilo and Vince Benedetti and with his own bands ( I Is not Looking At You, 2007). Queen was a member of the Quartet, in 2005 his last two concerts were given in Germany with the Oscar Peterson.

Lexigraphic entries

• Martin Kunzler: Jazz Encyclopedia Vol 2 Reinbek 2002; ISBN 3-499-16513-9