* En anglais uniquement
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 capacity several times during the '50s.
Abrams also dabbled with percussion, and appears playing only conga on a bruised handful of his dates. From the '60s onwards, the
Abrams discography seems to dry up, although he lived into the early '90s. How old he was when he died is a bit of a mystery, as there is an alternate birth date from the one above that is supplied in some references. This has the drummer arriving on the bandstand of life in January of 1920 rather than 1925. ~ Eugene Chadbourne