• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

JazzMF

Jazz research on the Internet: a continuing saga

  • Art Blakey Chronology
  • DC Jazz Encyclopedia
    • DC Jazz People
    • DC Jazz Places
  • Lenox School of Jazz
  • Jazz Magazine
    • Jazz Magazine (1976-1980)
    • Jazz Magazine – Volume 1
    • Jazz Magazine – Volume 2
    • Jazz Magazine – Volume 3
    • Jazz Magazine – Volume 4
  • Label Listings
  • More
    • Biography
    • Jazz Musician Pseudonyms
    • Muslim Names in Jazz
  • Who is Michael Fitzgerald?
    • My Citations
    • Interesting Links

Cobb, Jimmy

June 1, 2020 By Michael Fitzgerald Leave a Comment

Drummer. James Wilbur Cobb born January 20, 1929 in Washington, D.C.; died May 24, 2020 in New York City.

Cobb attended Armstrong High School and briefly studied percussion with Jack Dennett of the National Symphony Orchestra. He played locally with Charlie Rouse at Republic Gardens and with Buck Hill and Ellsworth Gibson. In the late 1940s he worked for two weeks with Billie Holiday at the Blue Mirror and with Pearl Bailey at the Club 2011, then traveled to New York City and joined the band of Earl Bostic (1950-1951). Cobb was a member of Dinah Washington’s trio (1952-1955) and was also romantically linked with her.

After working in Cannonball Adderley’s quintet in 1956-1957 and with Dizzy Gillespie in 1958, he joined Adderley in Miles Davis’s sextet in 1958. He participated in the sessions for the album Kind of Blue in 1959 and toured the U.S. and Europe with Davis into 1963. The reconstituted Davis rhythm section worked under the leadership of pianist Wynton Kelly for the remainder of the 1960s, until the death of bassist Paul Chambers in 1969.

From 1970 to 1978, Cobb was a member of Sarah Vaughan’s trio, and in the 1980s and 1990s, he worked regularly with Nat Adderley and others, including John Hicks, as well as being a member of the Great Jazz Trio with Hank Jones and Eddie Gomez. He led his own group, Jimmy Cobb’s Mob beginning in the 1990s.

He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2009.


Bibliography

7756 JimmyCobb items 1 chicago-fullnote-bibliography author asc https://jazzmf.com/wp/wp-content/plugins/zotpress/
Bernstein, Adam. “Consummate Jazz Drummer, Last Surviving Player on Davis’s ‘Kind of Blue.’” Washington Post, May 26, 2020.
Blumenthal, Bob. “Passing on the Beat: Jimmy’s Cobb’s Mob Brings a New Generation into Legendary Drummer’s Sphere.” Boston Globe, June 18, 1999.
Cobb, Jimmy, and Eleana Steinberg Cobb. Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program NEA Jazz Master interview. Interview by William A. Brower, July 26, 2010. Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. http://www.smithsonianjazz.org/documents/oral_histories/Jimmy_Cobb_Interview_Transcription.pdf.
Kahn, Ashley. Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece. New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 2000.
Mattingly, Rick. “Jimmy Cobb: Seasoned Sideman.” Modern Drummer, September 1979. https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/august-september-1979-jimmy-cobb-seasoned-sideman/.
Peters, Art. “Stormy Matrimonial Seas: Only One of Nine Marriages Lasted More Than Two Years.” Philadelphia Tribune, December 17, 1963.

Wiki Tags:
1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Tags

1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s

Copyright © 2023 · Michael Fitzgerald