Alvin Queen was 19 years old and playing with Horace Silver’s band at Club Barron in Harlem, when he first met Trumpeter Charles Tolliver. Two years later, in 1971, when Alvin was performing with George Benson, Tolliver called and asked him if he wanted to go to Europe with him.
“I told him, ‘Yes,’ and I quit George’s group and left America for my first trip to Europe that November. The group included Stanley Cowell on piano and Cecil McBee on bass. This was also the original “Music Incorporation” group; I was just replacing Jimmy Hopps, who was on drums.”
Alvin traveled with Tolliver back and forth to Europe many times over the next several months before getting another call from Horace. “Horace said, ‘Hey man, I’m putting together another group. Are you available?”
This time, Alvin joined the band for five years before moving to Montreal, where he was the house drummer for Rockhead’s Paradise. He stayed in Canada for two years before returning to New York. But after arriving, he quickly became disenchanted with the pressure put on jazz musicians to water down the music.
“I didn’t want to commercialize my music to become successful,” says Queen, “so I returned to Europe in 1977.” Read more. . .
