Arnett Cobb

Born: August 10, 1918

One of the classic Texas Tenors, there was always excitement elicited by Cobb’s uninhibited, blasting style which earned him the label "Wild Man of the Tenor Sax."

Arnette Cleophus Cobbs, was born on August 10, 1918, in Houston, Texas. He was taught piano by his grandmother and went on to study violin before taking up tenor saxophone in the Wheatley High School band. When he was fifteen he joined Louisiana band leader Frank Davis’s band and performed in the Houston area and throughout Louisiana during the summer. He worked with trumpeter Chester Boone for two years and left to become a founding member of the Milton Larkin Orchestra in 1936.

Jazz on Soul, Pop, Rock, Folk, and other intangible territories - Part 2

by Artur Moral
November 7, 2024

Part 1 | Part 2 James Carter soloing on a song by Sting? A prolific French guitarist and producer, approaching his thousandth album, deconstructing one of Billy Joel's most candid love songs? A Spanish trumpeter translating the Bee Gees into the jazz language? Yes, all this will happen in this second installment of a ...

Dwayne Clemons: Center of Gravity: Live at Smalls

by Pierre Giroux
October 18, 2024

Copenhagen-based trumpeter Dwayne Clemons is an accomplished musician whose US career trajectory hit a speed bump in the 1990s when he was incarcerated for a narcotics conviction. Fortunately, he caught the attention of pianist and club owner Spike Wilner who encouraged him to come to New York to play. In time, the result was that, in ...

Tim Warfield: One For Shirley

by C. Andrew Hovan
February 20, 2024

Jimmy Smith and Larry Young have continually set the benchmark for creative endeavors involving jazz and the Hammond B-3 organ, Smith being acknowledged for bringing the technical virtuosity of be-bop to the instrument and Young for expanding the vernacular based on the forward-thinking implications of John Coltrane. Somewhere in between these two, a colorful range of ...

Stan Killian: Brooklyn Calling

by Richard J Salvucci
August 17, 2022

Years ago, a group of folks were having dinner at a Westside San Antonio, Texas, restaurant known as Los Barrios. Occasionally, some restaurants there would start a jazz policy. In a place better known for mariachis, this would be a pleasant surprise. One Friday evening, some kid was playing tenor sax, quite a bit of tenor ...

Roseanna Vitro at Jazz at the Joint

by C. Michael Bailey
June 20, 2022

Roseanna Vitro Jazz At The Joint North Little Rock, AR May 9, 2021 In Arkansas, when Spring smiles, she reveals a gold incisor of Summer, promising humid warmth and languid pace. So it was entering The Joint Comedy Theater in North Little Rock, on May 9. However, on the second Monday ...

Listen Here

By Roseanna Vitro

Label: Skyline Records
Released: 2021
Track listing: No More Blues; You Go To My Head; Centerpiece; Love You Madly; A time For Love; This Happy Madness; Listen Here; It Could Happen To You; Easy Street; Sometime Ago; You Took Advantage of Me; Black Coffee.

August Birthdays

by Marc Cohn
September 4, 2020

August birthdays this week, celebrating the centennials of Charlie Parker, singer Jimmy Witherspoon and bassist George Duvivier. George only did one session as a leader for a French label, which I have never been able to find. So, we pair him with other August celebrants: Jimmy Rushing, Lester Young, Arnett Cobb and Art Farmer. We also ...

Meet Marc Cohn

by Marc Cohn
September 2, 2020

Meet Marc A. Cohn Dr. Cohn is a New Yorker-in-exile and has been doing jazz radio as an avocation since 1967. He is Professor Emeritus in Seed Biology at Louisiana State University, where he has won numerous teaching awards. He is a widely recognized authority on seed dormancy, is Editor Emeritus of Seed Science Research (the ...

8 Clips: Boss Tenors

March 1, 2020

Boss tenors take charge. I don't know how else to put it. When a boss tenor plays a ballad, a mid-tempo tune or a barn-burner, the saxophone's sound is assertive and commanding, with a deep, forceful push in the lower register and a bluesy wail up top. Let me illustrate with eight clips: Here's Ben Webster ...