Name a canonical jazz artist, and chances are Jimmy Cobb has
shared a stage or recording studio with them. Starting with his first
recordings with Earl Bostic at the tender age of 21 all the way up to his new
album This I Dig of You, due out August 16 via Smoke Sessions Records, Cobb has
been not just a jazz drummer but the jazz drummer — a musician unmatched in
technique and experience.
60 years ago, of course, Cobb played on what wound up
becoming the most indelible record in jazz history, Kind Of Blue. This
recording, with a band of Cobb’s longtime collaborators — pianist Harold
Mabern, guitarist Peter Bernstein, and bassist John Webber — pays tribute to
that seminal album by proving that it’s still not yet history. The 90-year-old
drummer, after all, is as vital and thoughtful as he ever was as he swings
through standards and contemporary compositions by his bandmates alike.
Mabern is Cobb’s oldest friend in the band; they’ve known
each other since meeting in Miles Davis’ band in 1963. “It's not that much
different,” Cobb says of playing with Mabern then compared to what it’s like to
share a stage today. “We've probably both gotten better. I think I have. I know
more about it, have had more experience with it.”
Bernstein was one of Cobb’s students at the New School, and
introduced him to Webber. They wound up as members of Cobb’s first working
band, Cobb’s Mob, alongside Brad Mehldau — the band on Cobb’s first Smoke
Sessions album, 2014’s The Original Mob. “He’s one of the originals,” says
Webber now. “He's such a great listener, he hears everything — there are a lot
of young drummers on the scene, but I don't think I can say they've surpassed
Jimmy in any way.”
The album’s classic, rich swing was recorded with a
casualness that recalls the kind of sessions Cobb was booked for during the
music’s heyday. “I let them pick the tunes,” Cobb says of his bandmates, who
chose from the wide array of songs in the Cobb’s Mob repertoire while focusing
on ones that they’d never recorded before. This I Dig of You required no
rehearsal, and was recorded in just one session.
But the thing that makes the album so special isn’t the
design of the tracklist — it’s the precision and detail the legendary drummer
uses to carefully guide each song, responding to and amplifying the soloists in
his quartet.
The uptempo opener, Hank Mobley composition “This I Dig of
You,” finds Cobb carving out all kinds of fresh rhythmic intricacies in an
extended solo that still sounds timeless. Bernstein’s “Blood Wolf Moon Blues,”
inspired by recent astronomical events, spotlights the drummer’s inimitable
feel underneath groovy solos by Mabern, Bernstein and Webber.
Cobb first recorded “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” with
Earl Bostic in 1951; all these years later, ironically, it sounds less
sentimental than ever — Bostic’s swooning vibrato replaced by unhurried but
never indulgent melodies. Heartfelt ballad “My Old Flame” has a similarly
storied place in Cobb’s repertoire — he recorded it with his old flame, Dinah
Washington, in 1955. “Like Miles used to say, probably the best time I had with
my clothes on,” Cobb remembers, laughing.
Dexter Gordon’s knotty “Cheese Cake” shows that Cobb has
lost none of his fire and urgency behind the kit, while Mabern’s “Edward Lee”
proves the pianist’s ageless, poignant playing. “Somewhere in the Night”
updates the Teri Thornton (another Cobb collaborator) original to a fresher
version of jazz at its most romantic and sophisticated.
“Yesterdays,” which Cobb first recorded live with John
Coltrane and Stan Getz in 1960, provides another subtle dose of nostalgia with
Mabern quoting Duke Ellington and Cobb playing every last angle of the tune,
drawing out exactly what still makes it fascinating to play. “I’ll Wait And
Pray” is also drawn from Cobb’s catalog with Coltrane (they recorded it together
60 years ago), but Sarah Vaughan (naturally, another Cobb collaborator) had
famously recorded the classic tune as well. Wes Montgomery’s “Full House” is
another tune that Cobb himself originated, though you wouldn’t know it by
listening to how vibrant he sounds over 50 years later.
Ask Cobb about how it feels to have spent over seven decades
as one of jazz’s pillars, and he responds in typically self-effacing fashion.
“I didn't really expect to be alive all these years later — I'm thankful that
I've been able to be here this long,” articulating a sentiment shared by jazz
fans the world over.
"This I Dig Of You" was produced by Paul Stache
and Damon Smith and
recorded live in New York at Sear Sound's Studio C on a
Sear-Avalon custom console
at 96KHz/24bit and mixed to ½" analog tape using a
Studer mastering deck.
Available in audiophile HD format.
Jimmy Cobb · This I Dig Of You
Smoke Sessions Records · Release Date: August 16, 2019
