Denzil Best

Denzil DaCosta Best (* April 27, 1917 in New York City; † May 24, 1965 same place ) was an American jazz drummer and composer.

Life and work

Best, who was trained at the piano, trumpet and bass, focused due to a lung injury from 1943 to the drum set. Between 1943 and 1944 he worked with Ben Webster, then at Coleman Hawkins (1944 /45), Illinois Jacquet (1946) and Chubby Jackson. He played there with musicians of modern jazz. He was involved in a recording with George Shearing in 1948 and in 1949 a founding member of the Quartet ( where he remained until 1952 ). But in 1949 he also worked at important, partly improvised recordings of Lennie Tristano with ( Cross Currents ) and also took later on with Lee Konitz. After a car accident in 1954, he played with Artie Shaw, and then to act in a trio of Erroll Garner (1955 to 1957 Concert by the Sea ). Then he played with Phineas Newborn, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Tyree Glenn. In 1962 he was involved in the first panel of Sheila Jordan. Because of paralysis (presumably due to deposits in the joints ), he was no longer able to work. He died as a result of a stair fall in a subway station.

Unlike most of bebop drummer who charged the musical events with accents against the Grundmetrum and so additional rhythmic intensity created, Best led the already continue that by "Papa" Jo Jones legato development consistently. He played with the meter, used almost exclusively jazz brush and rarely sat accents. With this game, he was not only a model for the drummer of cool jazz; it was copied around 1950 also in innumerable bar music combos.

Best composed some relevant pieces of bebop, which were but partially also played in the early cool jazz, such as " Move", " Wee " or " Dee Dee 's Dance" and presumably - together with his friend Thelonious Monk - " Bemsha Swing". His composition " 45 Degree Angel " was recorded by Mary Lou Williams and Herbie Nichols ( "Love, Gloom, Cash, Love," 1957).

Lexigraphic entries

Billy Bauer Bill Harris (musician) Flip Phillips Drum kit Phineas Newborn, Jr. Percussion mallet#Brushes Name Authority File
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