Stanley Cowell
Encyclopedia
Stanley Cowell is an American jazz
pianist
and founder of the Strata-East Records
label. He played with Roland Kirk while studying at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music
, and later 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. During the late 1980s Cowell was part of a regular quartet
led by J.J. Johnson
. Cowell teaches in the Music Department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Strata-East Records
Galaxy Records
SteepleChase Records
DIW Records
Other labels
With The Heath Brothers
With Johnny Griffin
With Bobby Hutcherson
With Art Pepper
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and founder of the Strata-East Records
Strata-East Records
Strata-East Records is an American record label specialising in jazz which was founded in 1971 by Stanley Cowell and Charles Tolliver.Gil Scott-Heron recorded his 1974 album Winter in America with Brian Jackson for Strata-East. "The Bottle" featured on the album, was a popular single...
label. He played with Roland Kirk while studying at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, located on the campus of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, was founded in 1865 and is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Students of Oberlin Conservatory enter a very broad network within the music world, as the school's alumni...
, and later with Marion Brown
Marion Brown
Marion Brown was a jazz alto saxophonist and ethnomusicologist. He is most well known as a member of the 1960s avant-garde jazz scene in New York City, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai...
, Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
, Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
, Clifford Jordan
Clifford Jordan
Clifford Laconia Jordan was a jazz saxophone player. While in Chicago, he performed with Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, and some rhythm and blues groups. He moved to New York City in 1957, after which he recorded three albums for Blue Note. He also recorded with Horace Silver, J.J. Johnson, Kenny...
, Harold Land
Harold Land
Harold de Vance Land was an American hard bop and post-bop tenor saxophonist. Land developed his hard bop playing with the Max Roach/Clifford Brown band into a personal, modern style. His tone was strong and emotional, yet displayed a certain fragility that made him easy to...
, Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
and Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
. Cowell played with trumpeter Charles Moore and others in the Detroit Artist's Workshop Jazz Ensemble in 1965-66. During the late 1980s Cowell was part of a regular quartet
Quartet
In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...
led by J.J. Johnson
J.J. Johnson
J. J. Johnson was a United States jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. He was sometimes credited as Jay Jay Johnson....
. Cowell teaches in the Music Department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
As leader
Freedom RecordsFreedom Records
Freedom Records was a jazz record label linked with the producer Alan Bates, as with his Black Lion Records.Individual recordings were distributed via Polydor Records and Transatlantic Records during the early 1970s before the company was bought by Arista Records.-Discography:*1000 Albert Ayler &...
- 1969: Blues for the Viet Cong (also released as Travellin' Man on Black Lion Records, see below)
- 1969: Brilliant Circles
Strata-East Records
Strata-East Records
Strata-East Records is an American record label specialising in jazz which was founded in 1971 by Stanley Cowell and Charles Tolliver.Gil Scott-Heron recorded his 1974 album Winter in America with Brian Jackson for Strata-East. "The Bottle" featured on the album, was a popular single...
- 1974: Musa: Ancestral Streams
- 1975: Regeneration
- 1977: Waiting For The Moment
Galaxy Records
Galaxy Records
Galaxy Records was a subsidiary of Fantasy Records. It was established in 1951 and has been reactivated several times. Its first incarnation was as a 1950s jazz label. It was revived again in 1961 as a gospel and R&B label. It was last active from 1978 until the mid eighties.-Circa late...
- 1977: Waiting for the Moment
- 1978: Equipoise
- 1978: Talkin' 'bout Love
- 1981: New World
SteepleChase Records
SteepleChase Records
SteepleChase Records is a jazz record label based in Copenhagen, Denmark. SteepleChase was founded in 1972 by Nils Winther, who was a student at Copenhagen University at the time...
- 1989: Sienna
- 1993: Angel Eyes
- 1994: Departure 2
- 1994: Games
- 1995: Setup
- 1995: Bright Passion
- 1995: Mandara Blossoms
- 1995: Live
- 1997: Hear Me One
DIW Records
DIW Records
DIW Records is a Japanese record label. It is a subsidiary label of Disc Union and specializes in jazz and avant garde music. Kazunori Sugiyama was an executive producer for the label before starting Tzadik Records with John Zorn.-Discography:...
- 1987: We Three
- 1990: Close to You Alone
Other labels
- 1972: Illusion Suite (ECM, 1973)
- 1985: Live at Cafe Des Copains
- 1989: Back to the Beautiful (Concord JazzConcord JazzConcord Jazz is a subsidiary of Concord Records, owned by Concord Music Group.-Dozens of albums:*Charlie Byrd*Ruby Braff*Dave McKenna*Marian McPartland*Rosemary Clooney*Scott Hamilton*Tito Puente*George Shearing*Gene Harris*Mel Tormé*Monty Alexander...
) - 1969: Travellin' Man (Black Lion RecordsBlack Lion RecordsBlack Lion Records was a jazz record label based in London, England.Black Lion was founded by Alan Bates in 1968. The label had two series of releases, one for British jazz musicians and one for international musicians...
) (also released as Blues for the Viet Cong on Freedom Records, see above) - 1990: Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 5Maybeck Recital HallMaybeck Recital Hall, also known as Maybeck Studio for Performing Arts, is located inside the Kennedy-Nixon House in Berkeley, California, USA. It was built in 1914 by Bernard Maybeck. The hall seats up to 50 people and was designed upon commission for the Nixon family, local arts patrons who...
(Concord Jazz) - 1999: Dancers in Love
As sideman
With Marion BrownMarion Brown
Marion Brown was a jazz alto saxophonist and ethnomusicologist. He is most well known as a member of the 1960s avant-garde jazz scene in New York City, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai...
- Why Not? (1966)
- Three for SheppThree for SheppThree for Shepp is the debut album by American saxophonist Marion Brown featuring performances recorded in 1966 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...
(1966)
With The Heath Brothers
- Marchin' On (1975)
With Johnny Griffin
Johnny Griffin
John Arnold Griffin III was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.- Early life and career :Griffin studied music at DuSable High School in Chicago under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax...
- Birds and BalladsBirds and BalladsBirds and Ballads is a jazz album recorded under the leadership of Johnny Griffin, released in 1978.Players include Art Pepper, John Klemmer, Joe Farrell, Joe Henderson, Harold Land, and the rhythm section featuring Stanley Cowell, Roy Haynes, Cecil McBee and John Heard.Four of the album's eight...
(1978)
With Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
- PatternsPatterns (album)Patterns is an album by jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, released on the Blue Note label. Although recorded in 1968, the album was not released until 1980...
(1968) - MedinaMedina (album)Medina in its currently issued form is a disc by jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. It is composed of two sessions recorded for the Blue Note label...
(1969) - Now! (1969)
With Art Pepper
Art Pepper
Art Pepper , born Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr., was an American alto saxophonist and clarinetist.About Pepper, Scott Yanow of All Music stated, "In the 1950s he was one of the few altoists that was able to develop his own sound despite the dominant influence of Charlie Parker" and: "When Art Pepper...
- Art Pepper TodayArt Pepper TodayArt Pepper Today is a 1978 jazz album by saxophonist Art Pepper playing with Stanley Cowell, Cecil McBee, Roy Haynes and Kenneth Nash.-Track listing:#"Miss Who" — 4:42#"Mambo Koyama" — 6:40...
(1978) - Winter MoonWinter Moon (Art Pepper album)Winter Moon is a 1980 jazz album by saxophonist Art Pepper playing with Stanley Cowell, Howard Roberts, Cecil McBee, Carl Burnett and strings arranged and conducted by Bill Holman and Jimmy Bond .-Track listing:#"Our Song" –...
(1980) - One September AfternoonOne September AfternoonOne September Afternoon is a 1980 jazz album by saxophonist Art Pepper playing with Stanley Cowell, Howard Roberts, Cecil McBee and Carl Burnett.The personnel is the same as on Pepper's previous album, Winter Moon, but minus the strings....
(1980)