Denzil Best

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Denzil Best (left) Al Casey (center) and Billy Bauer (right), New York, around 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .
Bill Harris , Denzil Best, Flip Phillips , Billy Bauer , Lennie Tristano , Chubby Jackson , circa September 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

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

Live and act

Best, who was trained in piano, trumpet and bass, concentrated on the drum set from 1943 due to lung damage . Between 1943 and 1944 he worked with Ben Webster , then with Coleman Hawkins (1944/45), Illinois Jacquet (1946) and Chubby Jackson . He also played there with modern jazz musicians . He was involved in a recording with George Shearing in 1948 and became a founding member of his quartet in 1949 (in which he remained until 1952). In 1949 he also worked on important, partly freely improvised recordings by Lennie Tristano ( Crosscurrents ) and later recorded with Lee Konitz . After a car accident, he played with Artie Shaw in 1954 , and then worked in Erroll Garner's trio (1955 to 1957, Concert by the Sea ). He then played with Phineas Newborn , Nina Simone , Billie Holiday and Tyree Glenn . In 1962 he was still involved in Sheila Jordan's first record . Due to paralysis (probably due to deposits in the joints) he was no longer able to work. He died as a result of falling down a staircase in a subway station.

Unlike most drummers of bebop, which charged the musical events with accents against the Grundmetrum and created so additional rhythmic intensity that led Best already covered by "Papa" Jo Jones continue that legato Development consistently. He played with the meter, used almost only jazz brooms and rarely set loud accents. With this way of playing he was not only a role model for the drummers of cool jazz ; it was also copied in countless bar music combos around 1950.

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

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personal data
SURNAME Best, Denzil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Best, Denzil DaCosta (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz drummer
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1965
Place of death New York City