 Wallace Roney © Andrea Canter
Miles Davis Kind of Blue remains the best selling and most influential jazz album of all time. Yoshi's in Oakland will be celebrating the 50th aniverary of that classic by hosting a stelar group of musicians to explore that music on Wednesday, June 10th through Sunday, June 14th. The "So What Band" features Miles Davis' protégé Wallace Roney on trumpet, Vincent Herring on alto saxophone, Javon Jackson on tenor sax, Larry Willis on piano, Buster Williams on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Jimmy Cobb is the only surviving musician who performed on Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue in 1959.
Known for his work as both an accomplished accompanist and soloist, jazz drummer NEA Jazz Master, Jimmy Cobb was born in Washington, DC, on January 20, 1929. Largely self-taught, Cobb spent his years in DC playing engagements with Charlie Rouse, Frank Wess, and Billie Holiday, among others.
 Jimmy Cobb
Jimmy Cobb continues to play music in New York City, where he lives with his wife and two children. He now leads the Jimmy Cobb "So What" Band, celebrating 50 years of Kind of Blue and the music of Miles Davis, and travels the international circuit as he approaches his 80th birthday. Cobb currently teaches master classes at Stanford University's Jazz Workshop and has taught at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, the University of Greensboro in North Carolina, the International Center for the Arts at San Francisco State University in California, and international educational institutions.
Jazz trumpeter extraordinaire Wallace Roney, who much like his mentor Miles Davis, is a highly skilled, expressive performer and an active force in the evolution of jazz. While being one of the most accomplished and acclaimed trumpeters in jazz today, Roney remains one of today's most misunderstood jazz masters. Roney rose to national prominence in the 1980's as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, earning favorable notice as a young lion with impressive technique in the Clifford Brown-Lee Morgan-Freddie Hubbard tradition. By the middle of the decade Roney was holding down a difficult dual membership with both the Messengers and Tony Williams' Quintet. Soon he began to display a more thoughtful and spacious approach to sound and improvisation -- one that nodded in the direction of Williams' former leader, Miles Davis, who by that time had befriended the young trumpeter, having given him the blue horn that is his trademark. Javon Jackson met the legendary Art Blakey one night at Mikell's, a New York City jazz club. After sitting in with the Messengers, Javon's skill on the tenor led to an invitation to join the group. Those years under the tutelage of Blakey involved intensive study of both interplay and improvisation. Performing alongside Terence Blanchard, Kenny Garrett, Wallace Roney and Benny Green, Javon appeared on several recordings with Blakey, including Not Yet (Soul Note), One For All (A&M) and Chippin' In (Timeless). Javon remained with the Messengers for over three years until Blakey's death in 1990. Javon earned his degree from Berklee while continuing to tour with Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Charlie Haden and Cedar Walton. Javon spent several years touring with a host of jazz greats, as well as his own groups, concentrating on technique and composition. He earned his master's degree in music and a position as Assistant Professor of Jazz Education at SUNY Purchase College. Vincent Herring played sax at West Point in the U.S. Military Band. Dubbed a “Young Lion” in the early 80s, he toured with the Lionel Hampton Band before his big break with Nat Adderley's band, displaying a style in the vein of Nat’s brother, Cannonball. Notes International Jazz Productions, “Vincent has developed into a virtuoso with a voice that is uniquely intense and vigorous with the energy and direction.” Regarding his place in the Cannonball chair with the Legacy Band, Jazz Times (November 2002) noted that he has “formidable technique and the appropriately aggressive attitude to put it over. Like Adderley, Herring tells a story when he plays, quotes other songs in his solos…and always plays hip turnarounds at the ends of his phrases.” (For more information on Vincent Herring, see www.vincentherring.com) Yoshi’s is located at Jack London Square in Oakland. Visit www.yoshis.com for ticket information.  |
SF Bay Area 
Thursday, 18 March 2010
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