After recording Quiet Nights in 1962, a Gil Evans session Miles Davis detested because of its light bossa nova feel, drummer Jimmy Cobb spent much of the 1960s recording with pianist Wynton Kelly in small group settings. In the 1970s, Jimmy recorded extensively with Sarah Vaughan and with jazz groups of varying sizes. In more recent years, Jimmy has toured and recorded with his group, Jimmy Cobb's Mob.
Late last year, Jimmy completed a ballad album with trumpeter Roy Hargrove [pictured] that's due soon, and he plans a tour with the So What Band, a group formed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kind of Blue (1959). The So What Band features Wallace Roney (trumpet), Javon Jackson (tenor sax), Vincent Herring (alto sax), Larry Willis (piano), Buster Williams (bass) and Jimmy on drums.
In Part 4 of my interview with Jimmy, the legendary drummer talks about quitting the Miles Davis' quintet in the early 1960s, accompanying Wynton Kelly and Red Garland, and his favorite Kind of Blue tracks:
JazzWax: Why weren’t you the drummer on Miles’ second quintet, the one he started in 1964?
Jimmy Cobb: Because I quit. In 1963 we were on tour. In the middle of the tour, Paul [Chambers] and Wynton [Kelly] left because of a misunderstanding with Miles over money. But we had six more weeks to go. Paul [pictured] and Wynton wanted me to quit, too, to form a trio. I said, “Man, I can’t quit now. I need to do this tour.” I needed the money. So Paul and Wynton went back to New York and worked for a while around Brooklyn with [drummer] Arthur Taylor.
JC: Miles went out and got Ron Carter [on bass, pictured] and
JW: What did Davis say?
JC: He said, “Cool. Go do the trio.” He asked me who he should get to take my place. We were out in L.A. at the time. I said, "About the best drummer I know out here is Frank Butler." So Miles called Frank Butler to record tracks for Seven Steps to Heaven. [By then Miles dropped Strozier and had Coleman play alto saxophone; Victor Feldman replaced Mabern.]
JC: Miles had some problems with Frank's drumming and didn’t want him around anymore after L.A. So when the group got back to New York [in May] to record the rest of Seven Steps, Miles hired Tony [Williams on drums] and Herbie [Hancock on piano].
JW: After you left the group, you recorded with Wes.
JC: Yes, I recorded Boss Guitar the day after I left Miles. Playing with Wes was great. We had a great time.
JW: Was Smokin at the Half Note in 1965 as exciting as it sounds.
JC: Oh yes. Wynton could play with anyone, and he sounded good all the time—whether he was sick, drunk, in any tempo. Always. He didn’t know any other way to play. Wynton was born in Jamaica and moved to New York soon after. He was raised in Brooklyn and was a child prodigy. He just went to the piano one day and started to play it. By the time he was 16 years old, Wynton had already made records [with Hal Singer in 1948]. The first time I met him with Dinah, he was 21 and I was 19. The first time we played together, I knew we were a perfect match. But that’s how he was with everybody. He could play with everybody and sounded great every time.
JW: What was Kelly like as a person?
JC: Wynton was a fun-loving guy. He’d give you his last $5 or the shirt off his back. And he was the “mayor” of his neighborhood in Brooklyn. Everybody knew and loved him. He’d play the numbers and then go to a happy hour at a bar from 5 to 7 pm. We used to hang out and do that and wait for the numbers to come out. He was a sweet guy. After that, he’d catch a cab and go into New York and play his ass off.
JW: You also played with Red Garland throughout your career. How did Red differ from Wynton?
JC: Red started out trying to play like Ahmad Jamal [pictured]. That’s what Miles was trying to fashion his original group on: Ahmad's sound. When Miles was in Chicago, he used to go to the Pershing every night and listen to Ahmad. Ahmad was his man. Red made albums that were exact duplicates.
JW: Red had punctuality problems, didn’t he?
JC: [Laughs] Red [pictured] could really swing. But sometimes he’d show up late. Other musicians on the date would get angry. When he’d arrive, he’d always tell some kind of astronomical lie. One time he came in late and said, “I’m sorry. I was coming down on the subway and some fool jumped off in front of the train and we had to wait until they got the guy out.” That was a lie because Red had a car!” [laughing]
JC: Casual. Another time, we were working with Miles at
JW: What did you think of Red's playing?
JC: Red was a Texas swinger. A real blues player. I played Red’s last recorded live gig. We went to Japan [in 1980 with Lou Donaldson on alto and Jamil Nasser on bass]. Jamil had to go get him at his house in Texas to bring him to the airport. It took him about a half hour for Red to walk through the airport to get to the gate. He was in such bad shape the first two or three days.
JW: Red had a rough few years there.
JC: Toward the end, Red would be at his house in Texas. His wife would make him his dinner. She’d say, “OK Red, I’m going to work. Your food is on the table.” She’d get back after work and the food would still be on the table. He’d be there drinking beer and stuff.
JW: Last question: What’s your absolute favorite track from Kind of Blue?
JC: Freddie Freeloader, which we played with Wynton. And Bill Evans’ Blue in Green. I liked all of that stuff Bill put together for the album.
JazzWax clip: Here's an amazing clip of Jimmy with John Coltrane, Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers from April 1960 during the Miles Davis Quintet's European tour. The filmed performance of Walkin' and The Theme must have been on a night Miles was too ill to play, since he doesn't appear here or in the discography for that date...
Jimmy is one of the greatest drummers ever. I absolutely adore his playing. There are some live recordings of the Miles Davis group performing in Europe featuring Jimmy worth looking for, especially the live show in Stockholm from March 22, 1960.
I enjoyed his comments about Wynton Kelly as well. They remind me of the wonderful things Oscar Peterson said about Wynton in his autobiography "A Jazz Odyssey". What many people don't realize about Wynton was how good he was at "compng" behind a soloist. He and Paul played on so many Blue Note dates together, and they were so much better recorded by Rudy Van Gelder.
Posted by: Mike Milner | January 08, 2009 at 06:02 PM
My very small Jimmy Cobb story: In 1991 and 1992, I lived in Furukawa, a town of about 60,000 people in northern Japan. Also living in this town was a guy known as The Master who'd been a first-call drummer in Tokyo until he'd fallen ill and decided to move back to Furukawa. He opened a jazz club there and booked every big name who came to Japan because he'd known them all during all his decades in Tokyo.
When I lived in Japan again from '96-98, I went back to Furukawa to visit and stopped in to see The Master. He told me that Eddie Gomez, Jimmy Cobb and Jeremy Steig were in town to play a gig that night. That afternoon, my wife and I were walking down the street and we noticed two other non-Japanese (extremely rare in this small northern town) across the street. I said to Jen, "That looks a lot like Eddie Gomez and Jimmy Cobb." I didn't want to bother them, so we kept walking.
Later that night, I went to the gig. I was the only other English speaker there, so before the show I ended up having dinner with The Master, Eddie, Jimmy, Jeremy and a few Japanese musicians. I translated between the two languages as best I could and had a very enjoyable conversation, very little of which was about music. Mostly we talked about Japanese food and culture. It's one of those memories I like to go back to.
Posted by: Jason Crane | January 09, 2009 at 02:35 PM