PROGRESSIVE MUSIC COMPANY

AFRO-AMERICAN MUSIC INSTITUTE CELEBRATES 36 YEARS

BOYS CHOIR AFRICA SHIRTS
 
 
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/building-today-for-tomorrow/x/267428

 Pain Relief Beyond Belief

                         http://www.komehsaessentials.com/                              

 

PITTSBURGH JAZZ

 

From Blakey to Brown, Como to Costa, Eckstine to Eldridge, Galbraith to Garner, Harris to Hines, Horne to Hyman, Jamal to Jefferson, Kelly to Klook; Mancini to Marmarosa, May to Mitchell, Negri to Nestico, Parlan to Ponder, Reed to Ruther, Strayhorn to Sullivan, Turk to Turrentine, Wade to Williams… the forthcoming publication Treasury of Pittsburgh Jazz Connections by Dr. Nelson Harrison and Dr. Ralph Proctor, Jr. will document the legacy of one of the world’s greatest jazz capitals.

 

Do you want to know who Dizzy Gillespie  idolized? Did you ever wonder who inspired Kenny Clarke and Art Blakey? Who was the pianist that mentored Monk, Bud Powell, Tad Dameron, Elmo Hope, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Torme? Who was Art Tatum’s idol and Nat Cole’s mentor? What musical quartet pioneered the concept adopted later by the Modern Jazz Quartet? Were you ever curious to know who taught saxophone to Stanley Turrentine or who taught piano to Ahmad Jamal? What community music school trained Robert McFerrin, Sr. for his history-making debut with the Metropolitan Opera? What virtually unknown pianist was a significant influence on young John Coltrane, Shirley Scott, McCoy Tyner, Bobby Timmons and Ray Bryant when he moved to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh in the 1940s?  Would you be surprised to know that Erroll Garner attended classes at the Julliard School of Music in New York and was at the top of his class in writing and arranging proficiency?

 

Some answers  can be gleaned from the postings on the Pittsburgh Jazz Network.

 

For almost 100 years the Pittsburgh region has been a metacenter of jazz originality that is second to no other in the history of jazz.  One of the best kept secrets in jazz folklore, the Pittsburgh Jazz Legacy has heretofore remained mythical.  We have dubbed it “the greatest story never told” since it has not been represented in writing before now in such a way as to be accessible to anyone seeking to know more about it.  When it was happening, little did we know how priceless the memories would become when the times were gone.

 

Today jazz is still king in Pittsburgh, with events, performances and activities happening all the time. The Pittsburgh Jazz Network is dedicated to celebrating and showcasing the places, artists and fans that carry on the legacy of Pittsburgh's jazz heritage.

 

WELCOME!

 

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Duke Ellington is first African-American and the first musician to solo on U.S. circulating coin

    MARY LOU WILLIAMS     

            INTERVIEW

       In Her Own Words

RUSSELL CONTRERAS

Jimmy Cobb, a percussionist and the last surviving member of Miles Davis’ 1959 “Kind of Blue” groundbreaking jazz album which transformed the genre and sparked several careers, died Sunday.

His wife, Eleana Tee Cobb, announced on Facebook that her husband died at his New York City home from lung cancer. He was 91.

Born in Washington, D.C., Cobb told The Associated Press in 2019 he listened to jazz albums and stayed up late to hear disc jockey Symphony Sid playing jazz in New York City before launching his professional career. He said it was saxaphonist Cannonball Adderley who recommended him to Davis, and he ended up playing on several Davis recordings.

But Cobb’s role as a drummer on the “Kind of Blue” jam session headed by Davis would forever change his career. That album also featured Adderley and John Coltrane.

The album, released on Aug. 17, 1959, captured a moment when jazz was transforming from bebop to something newer, cooler and less structured.

The full takes of the songs were recorded only once, with one exception, Cobb said. “Freddie Freeloader” needed to be played twice because Davis didn’t like a chord change on the first attempt, he said.

Davis, who died in 1991, had some notes jotted down, but there weren’t pages of sheet music. It was up to the improvisers to fill the pages. “He’d say this is a ballad. I want it to sound like it’s floating. And I’d say, ‘OK,’ and that’s what it was,” Cobb recalled.

The album received plenty of acclaim at the time, yet the critics, the band and the studio couldn’t have known it would enjoy such longevity. He and his bandmates knew the album would be a hit but didn’t realize at the time how iconic it would become.

“We knew it was pretty damned good,” Cobb joked.

It has sold more than 4 million copies and remains the best selling jazz album of all time. It also served as a protest album for African American men who looked to Davis and the jazz musicians to break stereotypes about jazz and black humanity.

Cobb would also work with such artists as Dinah Washington, Pearl Bailey, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Wynton Kelly and Stan Getz. He'd also release a number of albums on his own.

He performed well into his late 80s and played in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2017, as part of the New Mexico Jazz Festival. Jazz fans from throughout the American Southwest came to pay their respects in what many felt was a goodbye.

Cobb released his last album, This I Dig of You, with Smoke Sessions Records in August 2019.

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Drummer Jimmy Cobb Dies at 91

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Jimmy Cobb (1929–2020)

(Photo: Jimmy Katz)

Drummer Jimmy Cobb—famous for a discography that includes appearances on numerous Miles Davis albums, including 1959’s Kind Of Blue—died in his Manhattan home May 25 from lung cancer, according to WBGO. He was 91.

Cobb was a member of Davis’ band between 1957 and 1963, and appeared on several of the trumpeter’s albums, including, among others, Porgy And Bess (1959)Sketches Of Spain (1960), Miles Davis In Person: Friday Night At The Blackhawk (1961) and Miles Davis At Carnegie Hall (1962).

Following his stint with Davis, Cobb worked in pianist Wynton Kelly’s namesake trio with bassist Paul Chambers. (Kelly and Chambers had been in Davis’ band, too.)

A tasteful drummer known for his pulse and groove—who eschewed showy grandstanding—Cobb was comfortable being in the role of accompanist. It was a quality that made him a sought-after collaborator for decades.

During a career that began in the late 1940s, Cobb performed with the biggest names of the genre. A partial list of collaborators illustrates a wide span of musical history: Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Clark Terry, Sarah Vaughan, Cannonball Adderley, Wes Montgomery, Dinah Washington, Ron Carter, Nancy Wilson, Wayne Shorter, Brad Mehldau, Roy Hargrove and Christian McBride.

A native of Washington, D.C., James Wilbur Cobb was born Jan. 20, 1929. When he began playing drums as youngster, his key influences included Max Roach and Kenny Clarke.

Cobb’s leader projects included Only For The Pure Of Heart (1998), Cobb’s Corner (2007) and The Original Mob (2014). In 2019, Smoke Sessions released his album This I Dig Of You, recorded with guitarist Peter Bernstein, pianist Harold Mabern and bassist John Webber.

In an article by Ted Panken in the September 2019 issue of DownBeat, Cobb described how he devised the insistent ride-cymbal sound for which he became famous.

“I developed it from not having something else,” he said. “Once, on a gig with Dizzy Gillespie, I was playing a coordination thing out of Jim Chapin’s book with figures he’d heard guys play without the bass drum being in 4, as guys had done in the big bands, so that everyone could hear the beat. Dizzy probably was used to hearing his guys play that way, and he came over and put his ear down by the bass drum. I told him, ‘Well, Birks, I don’t have a big 4/4 like that.’ I had to have the beat somewhere, so I concentrated on making it heard on the cymbal. I always liked the way Kenny Clarke played the cymbal—nice and quiet, but definite and killing—and I got some stuff from him.”

As a clinician, Cobb taught at numerous institutions, including the Stanford Jazz Workshop, The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, the University of Greensboro in North Carolina and the International Center for the Arts at San Francisco State University.

When Cobb was named a 2009 NEA Jazz Master fellowship recipient, he issued this statement: I am humbled to be included among the great musicians in our American history. I express my gratitude to these jazz giants, many of whom were close friends, who shaped this great American art form called jazz and ultimately helped to shape my life as well. I thank the NEA committee for recognizing America’s jazz masters and the art of jazz itself and I am honored and privileged to be a part of this legacy.”

Survivors include his wife and two daughters. DB

RIP

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