Stanley Cowell facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Stanley Cowell
Playing with the Heath Brothers in Rockefeller Center, June 1977
Background information
Born	(1941-05-05)May 5, 1941 Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
Died	December 17, 2020(2020-12-17) (aged 79) Dover, Delaware, U.S.
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Piano
Labels	Arista, DIW, Galaxy, SteepleChase, Strata-East
Associated acts	Roland Kirk, Marion Brown, Charles Tolliver, Max Roach

Stanley Cowell (May 5, 1941 – December 17, 2020) was an American jazz pianist and co-founder of the Strata-East Records label.

Early life

With Heath Brothers at Sproul Plaza, University of California, Berkeley, May 1980

Cowell was born in Toledo, Ohio. He began playing the piano around the age of four, and became interested in jazz after seeing Art Tatum at the age of six. Tatum was a family friend.

After high school, Cowell studied classical piano with Emil Danenberg at Oberlin Conservatory of Music He included "Emil Danenberg" in his 1973 suite "Musa: Ancestral Dreams". During his time at Oberlin, he played with jazz multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk, which proved to be formative. He went on to receive a graduate degree in classical piano from the University of Michigan. He moved to New York in the mid-1960s.

Later life and career

Cowell played with Marion Brown, Max Roach, Bobby Hutcherson, Clifford Jordan, Harold Land, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz. Cowell played with trumpeter Charles Moore and others in the Detroit Artist's Workshop Jazz Ensemble in 1965–66.

In 1971, Cowell co-founded the record label Strata-East with trumpeter Charles Tolliver. The label would become one of the most successful Black-led, independent labels of its day.

During the late 1980s, Cowell was part of a regular quartet led by J.J. Johnson. Cowell taught in the Music Department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

On December 17, 2020, Cowell died at Bayhealth Hospital in Dover, Delaware, from hypovolemic shock. He was 79 years old.

Discography

As leader

As sideman

With Rashied Ali

• First Time Out: Live At Slugs 1967 (Survival Records, 2020)

With Gary Bartz

• Another Earth (Milestone, 1969)

With Marion Brown

• Three for Shepp (Impulse!, 1967)
• Why Not? (1968)
• Vista (Impulse!, 1975)

With Larry Coryell

• Equipoise (Muse, 1985)
• Toku Do (Muse, 1987)

With Richard Davis

• Way Out West (Muse, 1977 [1980])
• Fancy Free (Galaxy)

With Sonny Fortune

• Long Before Our Mothers Cried (Strata-East, 1974)

With Roy Haynes

• Thank You Thank You (Galaxy, 1977)
• Vistalite (Galaxy, 1977 [1979])

With Jimmy Heath

• Love and Understanding (Muse, 1973)
• The Time and the Place (Landmark, 1974 [1994])

With The Heath Brothers

• Marchin' On (1975)
• Passing Thru (1978)
• In Motion (1979)
• Live at the Public Theater (1980)
• Expressions of Life (1980)
• Brotherly Love (1982)
• Brothers and Others (1984)

With Stan Getz

• The Song Is You (1969)

With Johnny Griffin

• Birds and Ballads (1978)

With Bobby Hutcherson

• Patterns (Blue Note, 1968)
• Spiral (Blue Note, 1968 [1979])
• Medina (Blue Note, 1969 [1980])
• Now! (Blue Note, 1969)

With J.J. Johnson

• Standards-Live At The Village Vanguard (1988)

With Clifford Jordan

• Glass Bead Games (1973)

With James Mtume

• Rebirth Cycle (1977)

With Oliver Nelson

• Swiss Suite (Flying Dutchman, 1971)

With Jimmy Owens

• Headin' Home (A&M/Horizon, 1978)

With Art Pepper

• Art Pepper Today (Galaxy, 1978)
• Winter Moon (Galaxy, 1980)
• One September Afternoon (Galaxy, 1980)

With Max Roach

• Members, Don't Git Weary (Atlantic, 1968)

With Charles Sullivan

• Genesis (Strata-East, 1974)

With Buddy Terry

• Awareness (Mainstream, 1971)

With Charles Tolliver

• The Ringer (Polydor, 1969)
• Live at Slugs' (Strata-East, 1970)
• Music Inc. (Strata-East, 1971)
• Impact (Enja, 1972)
• Live in Tokyo (Strata-East, 1973)
• Impact (Strata-East, 1975)

See also

In Spanish: Stanley Cowell para niños