Drummer Dennis Mackrel has always been highly regarded by working musicians, yet undervalued by the jazz community as a whole. Mackrel is probably best known as the drummer hand-picked by Mel Lewis in 1990 to take over duties in the Village Vanguard Orchestra when Lewis was unable to continue. This was not actually the first time he held an important chair in a high profile band; in 1983, at 21 years of age, Mackrel joined the Count Basie Orchestra, a position which he held until 1987.