Drew Gress

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American jazz double bassist and composer

title: "Drew Gress" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1959-births", "living-people", "musicians-from-trenton,-new-jersey", "towson-university-alumni", "21st-century-american-double-bassists", "21st-century-american-male-musicians", "american-jazz-double-bassists", "classical-jazz-quartet-members", "american-male-double-bassists", "american-male-jazz-musicians", "pennsbury-high-school-alumni", "pirouet-records-artists", "enja-records-artists", "basho-records-artists"] description: "American jazz double bassist and composer" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Gress" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American jazz double bassist and composer ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameDrew Gress
imageDrew Gress Unterfahrt 2010-10-15-002.jpg
captionGress in 2010
birth_date
birth_placeTrenton, New Jersey
genreJazz
occupationMusician
instrumentDouble bass
years_active1980s–present
labelEnja
associated_actsThe Claudia Quintet
website
::

| name = Drew Gress | image = Drew Gress Unterfahrt 2010-10-15-002.jpg | caption = Gress in 2010 | birth_date = | birth_place = Trenton, New Jersey | genre = Jazz | occupation = Musician | instrument = Double bass | years_active = 1980s–present | label = Enja | associated_acts = The Claudia Quintet | website =

Drew Gress (born November 20, 1959) is an American jazz double-bassist and composer born in Trenton, New Jersey and raised in the Philadelphia area.

Biography

Gress studied at Towson State University and Manhattan School of Music. In the late 1980s he worked with Phil Haynes, recording several albums with the group Joint Venture.

In 1998, he released his first album as leader, Heyday, with his band Jagged Sky (featuring David Binney, Ben Monder, and Kenny Wollesen). Gress wrote all except two of the compositions. Two years later, he recorded Spin & Drift, on which he also played steel guitar. He recorded material for two further albums – 7 Black Butterflies and The Irrational Numbers – in 2004.

Gress has taught at Peabody Conservatory and Western Connecticut State University. He has also served tenures as artist in residence at University of Colorado-Boulder and at Russia's St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Gress has toured Europe, Asia, and South America. Those with whom he has and continues to work include Tim Berne, Uri Caine, Fred Hersch, Don Byron, Dave Douglas, and Erik Friedlander.

Critic John Fordham described a performance by Gress's group as "one of the great jazz performances in Britain in 2002". In 2004, the UK's BBC Radio and London's Guardian selected his quartet's live radio broadcast as Jazz Concert of the Year.

Composition awards include an NEA grant (1990), funding from Meet the Composer (2003).

Playing and composing style

The DownBeat reviewer of Vesper, a collaboration between Gress and the trio expEAR, wrote that the bassist "has exquisite time and a composer's sense of line, a combination that allows him an insightful level of counterpoint in his playing". The DownBeat reviewer of Gress's The Sky inside wrote that he "favors a focused restraint, a sort of concentrated tension that wrings the maximum inspiration from minimal elements, and which maintains a taut severity even when spare free passages burst into angular swing".

Discography

As leader

  • Heyday (as Drew Gress's Jagged Sky) (Soul Note, 1998)
  • Spin & Drift (Premonition, 2001)
  • 7 Black Butterflies (Premonition, 2005)
  • The Irrational Numbers (Premonition, 2008)
  • And Again with Shims Trio (Deepdig, 2012)
  • The Sky Inside (Pirouet, 2013)

As sideman

With John Abercrombie

With Tim Berne

With Uri Caine

With Yelena Eckemoff

  • In the Shadow of a Cloud (L&H, 2017)
  • Better Than Gold and Silver (L&H, 2018)
  • I Am a Stranger in This World (L&H, 2022)

With Fred Hersch

  • Dancing in the Dark (Chesky, 1993)
  • Plays ... (Chesky, 1994)
  • Point in Time (Enja, 1995)
  • Passion Flower: The Music of Billy Strayhorn (Nonesuch, 1996)
  • The Duo Album (Classical Action, 1997)
  • Live at the Village Vanguard (Palmetto, 2002)
  • Trio + 2 (Palmetto, 2004)
  • Night & the Music (Palmetto, 2007)
  • '97 @ The Village Vanguard (Palmetto, 2018)
  • Breath by Breath (Palmetto, 2022)
  • The Surrounding Green (ECM, 2025)

With Joint Venture

  • Joint Venture (Enja, 1987)
  • Ways (Enja, 1989)
  • Mirrors (Enja, 1994)

With Kenny Werner

  • Beauty Secrets (RCA/BMG, 1999)

With others

References

References

  1. (2002). Grove Music Online
  2. "Drew Gress {{!}} Biography & History".
  3. (2008). "[[The Penguin Guide to Jazz". [[Penguin Books.
  4. (November 29, 2002). "Drew Gress/ Tim Berne: Vortex, London". The Guardian.
  5. (17 October 2003). "Tim Berne's Science Friction, The Sublime And". The Guardian.
  6. Considine, J. D.. (March 2018). "expEAR & Drew Gress: Vesper".
  7. Brady, Shaun. (October 2013). "Drew Gress: The Sky inside".

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1959-birthsliving-peoplemusicians-from-trenton,-new-jerseytowson-university-alumni21st-century-american-double-bassists21st-century-american-male-musiciansamerican-jazz-double-bassistsclassical-jazz-quartet-membersamerican-male-double-bassistsamerican-male-jazz-musicianspennsbury-high-school-alumnipirouet-records-artistsenja-records-artistsbasho-records-artists