Jimmy Cobb - Remembering U (2019)

A consummate accompanist, unerring timekeeper, outstanding soloist and dynamic leader in his own right, revered drummer Jimmy Cobb showcases his inimitable touch on ballads and his irrepressibly swinging ride cymbal pulse on Remembering U. Accompanied by his working trio of Japanese pianist Tadataka Unno and Italian bassist Paolo Benedettini, Cobb’s latest stands as a tribute to those people who have been a part of his long journey in jazz and are no longer with us. Special guests include tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson and the late trumpeter Roy Hargrove in one of his last studio sessions. The recording also marks the final session of legendary engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who presided over classic sessions for the Blue Note, Prestige and Impulse! labels. (Cobb remembers playing on a Van Gelder session in the mid-1950s when the fledgeling engineer was operating out of his parents home in Hackensack, New Jersey.)

On Remembering U, 2009 NEA Jazz Masters Award winner Cobb proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, at age 90, he is indeed still swinging after all these years.

Cobb’s expansive list of recording credits over seven decades reads like a Who’s Who in Jazz. Among the countless sessions he participated in since the mid ’50s are such landmark recordings as Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, Porgy & Bess and Sorcerer, John Coltrane’s Giant Steps and Coltrane Jazz, Wes Montgomery’s Full House, Boss Guitar and Smokin’ at the Half Note as well as potent sessions with Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, Bobby Timmons, Cannonball Adderley, Sarah Vaughan, Sonny Stitt and a string of acclaimed trio recordings with pianist Wynton Kelly and bassist Paul Chambers. On Remembering U, his 12th as a leader and first for his own Jimmy Cobb World label, Cobb and his versatile crew display remarkable chemistry on 12 tracks.