Kenny Drew; Jazz Pianist Based in Denmark

Kenny Drew, 64, American-born jazz pianist who helped turn Copenhagen into a European jazz center. Born in New York, Drew studied classical piano from the age of 5 and gave his first recital at 8. He made his first recording in 1950 for Blue Note, and in the early 1950s had a trio based in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Drew moved to Paris in 1961 and settled in Copenhagen in 1964, becoming the house pianist at the Copenhagen Montmartre jazz club. His American jazz colony there included saxophonists Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster, pianist Bud Powell and bassist Oscar Pettiford. Earlier this year, Drew was awarded the Palae Bar Prize, a Danish jazz award. His last recordings, “Fantasia” and “Moonlit Desert,” were made with Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, a young Danish bassist. On Wednesday in Copenhagen of stomach cancer.