Lee Abrams

One of the rare jazz musicians associated from the New York scene that is actually from the New York metropolitan area, Lee Abrams played mostly swing and early bebop, and functioned particularly well in the context of the piano trio. Some of the best players in this style knew this to be true, and the proof is in the grooves of sides recorded by piano trio leaders such as Duke Jordan and Wynton Kelly. The first professional jazz job for Abrams was with a trumpeter, however; not just any trumpeter, but Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge. This gig started in 1946, following a three-year stint in the Army when the drummer played only military backbeats. Back home, the man born Lee Abramson in Brooklyn found the 52nd Street scene to be like his second bedroom, minus the sleeping. He played frequently in that area's clubs behind players such as tenor saxophone great Coleman Hawkins and trombonist J.J. Johnson, a pioneer in the bebop style on his instrument. In 1948, Abrams worked in groups small and large, from the Eddie Heywood trio to the big band of Andy Kirk. Trumpeter Hot Lips Page took him on tour, and in the early '50s he laid down the rhythmic law for Lester Young, who blew tenor behind the beat, as well as Illinois Jacquet, who blew tenor ahead of the beat. The former leader's combos with Abrams were an early job for Horace Silver, one of the funkiest of all pianists. Abrams continued freelancing, never straying that far from New York City, well into the late '50s. He shows up on classic sides by the aforementioned pianists including Jordan's defining Jordu and Kelly's wonderful New Faces, New Sounds. This repeated adjective certainly applied to Kelly, who was only 19 when he began gigging with Abrams. The drummer also recorded with bebop pianist Al Haig in his bandleader...