Home » Jazz Articles » Live Review » Jimmy Cobb's So What Band: Albany, February 10, 2011
Jimmy Cobb's So What Band: Albany, February 10, 2011
The Egg,
Albany, USA
February 10, 2011
It's well documented that the music of
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
Jimmy Cobb
drums1929 - 2020
It hasn't lost its luster. Who, but Cobb, has the true right to be doing this? And he does it with style and class. His band, he now deems the So What Band, basically sticks to all the original arrangements, but each of the artists play their own things. At a recent performance at The Egg, in Albany, New York, the band consisted of trumpeter
Jeremy Pelt
trumpetb.1976
Wallace Roney
trumpet1960 - 2020
Vincent Herring
saxophone, altob.1964
Javon Jackson
saxophoneb.1965
Larry Willis
piano1942 - 2019
Buster Williams
bass, acousticb.1942
"The best thing I can do, in tribute to Miles, is play the music, not mimic him," Pelt said, a few days before the show. "What I'm going to bring to it is just me, playing my own personal tribute to Miles, as best I can."
And he was fine. Pelt's influences are more toward
Clifford Brown
trumpetb.1930
Booker Little
trumpet1938 - 1961
The concert kicked off with "So What," giving Pelt a chance to lock his fat tone into the tune's distinctive groove. He was melodic and slick—more Brownie-like. Jackson was, too. Herring was one of the stars of the show, playing with a great bluesy bounce, and the élan that was so pronounced in
Cannonball Adderley
saxophone1928 - 1975
One of the key questions about Pelt was how he would fare on the ballads, "Blue In Green" and "Flamenco Sketches" where Miles' muted trumpet is so haunting, soulful, beautiful, ethereal. On those tunes, Pelt placed the trumpet mute right onto the microphone head, as Miles was known to do, and blew notes of heartfelt warmth and concentrated beauty. The sound he affected, using the mike, gave his mute—which thins the normal trumpet sound—a much wider sound. Elegance. He walked the tightrope nicely, getting to the soul of the original, even as his notes were much different to what Miles would have played.
Willis was closer, stylistically, to
Wynton Kelly
piano1931 - 1971
Bill Evans
piano1929 - 1980
"All Blues" may, with the possible exception of "So What," be the most played song from the album, by jazz musicians everywhere. So when the group jumped into that 12-bar blues in 6/8 time, all the players were able to rip into it in a relaxed fashion. Pelt's open trumpet was downright regal in its bold and brassy statements, while Herring was agile as ever and Willis was free to spray in soulful statements.
The music of the evening was tight, in the sense of what the group wanted to accomplish—presenting a classic album—and, yet, loose enough for each soloist to tell his own story. An excellent night of music. When the audience seemed unwilling to let them leave, they jumped into "On Green Dolphin Street" and blew the lid off a chestnut that was a Davis staple back in the day. It was a good way to bow out for this fine band. Cobb—certainly one of the grand old men of the trap set—still sounds (and looks) as good as hell and is to be commended for keeping this music alive.
Tags
Jimmy Cobb
Live Reviews
R.J. DeLuke
United States
Miles Davis
Jeremy Pelt
Wallace Roney
Vincent Herring
Javon Jackson
Larry Willis
Buster Williams
Clifford Brown
Booker Little
Cannonball Adderley
Wynton Kelly
Bill Evans
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