Miles Davis’s 1959 released album ‘Kind of Blue’ changed the face of jazz music forever. Soon after its release the album was heralded as a masterpiece by everyone. On Sunday, a major contributor of the album, drummer Jimmy Cobb died at the age of 91.
In a Facebook post, his wife Eleana Tee Cobb revealed that he was suffering from lung cancer and succumbed to it at his home in New York.
Jimmy was born in Washington D.C. on January 20, 1929. He started his musical journey by listening to jazz albums late at nights. Jimmy used to stay awake and listen to Symphony Sid performing in New York City. In 1957, Miles Davis took him under his wing after saxophonist Cannonball Adderley recommended him. He became a part of Davis’s First Great Sextet.
Although he played on a lot of Davis’s albums, his work in ‘Kind of Blue’ propelled his fame the most. The whole album transformed the lives of everyone involved in its development and gave Cobb the distinction of the last surviving member of the album for almost three decades.
In an interview sometime later, Cobb recalled that no one expected the album to reach such great heights as it did but they knew that it was ‘pretty damn good’. The album went on to sell more than 4 million copies worldwide and become the best selling jazz album. The Library of Congress chose it to become a part of National Recording Registry in 2002. Rolling Stone also ranked it at number 12 in its list of 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003.
Jimmy released a lot of his own albums as well and performed up until his late 80s. His contribution will forever remain in the heart of Jazz fans throughout the world.