COOK, HERMAN “JUNIOR” (1934–1992)
A tenor saxophonist, Junior Cook worked with Dizzy Gillespie in 1958 before joining Horace Silver’s quintet from 1959 to 1964. Cook and Blue Mitchell both left Silver’s quintet in 1964 and played together from 1964 to 1969. After teaching at the Berklee College of Music, he would go on to work with Freddie Hubbard from 1973 to 1975 and Louis Hayes from 1975 to 1976. In the 1980s, Cook played with Clifford Jordan and the McCoy Tyner big band, among others. See also TENOR SAXOPHONE.
COOL JAZZ
A variation and reaction to the bebop style of the 1940s, cool jazz was an attempt to tone down some of the harsher aspects of bop. Often interchanged with the term West Coast jazz, cool jazz emphasized arrangements and often demonstrated softer dynamics and articulations using less extremes of register. Miles Davis’s album Birth of the Cool is an oft-cited example. Notable artists associated with cool jazz styles include Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, and Lee Konitz. See also LIGHTHOUSE CAFÉ.
COOLMAN, TODD (1954–)
A bass player and author, Coolman moved to New York City in 1978 and began performing professionally. He has performed with many jazz artists—included among them are Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, Ahmad Jamal, and Benny Golson. For 25 years, he performed with the James Moody Quartet. In 1997, Coolman received a Ph.D. in music from New York University. He has recorded four CDs as a leader and written two books on bass techniques. He was director of the Skidmore Jazz Institute from 2011 to 2018. Coolman is currently on the faculty of the jazz studies programs at SUNY Purchase and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music while continuing to perform internationally.
COPELAND, RAY (1926–1984)
Originally a classical trumpet player, Ray Copeland switched to jazz and played with several bands in Manhattan and Brooklyn throughout the late 1940s, including Cecil Scott and Mercer Ellington. In the late 1950s, he settled in New York and would work with Ella Fitzgerald (1965) and tour with Thelonious Monk (1967). During the 1970s he became active as a composer and jazz educator.
COREA, ARMANDO ANTHONY “CHICK” (1941–)
A jazz pianist, Chick Corea got his start playing in several Latin bands before joining Blue Mitchell in 1964 and later Stan Getz in 1967. In 1968, Corea joined Miles Davis’s band and recorded with Davis on his first fusion albums. Corea and Dave Holland left Davis’s group in 1970 and formed their own group, Circle, with Barry Altschul and Anthony Braxton, and the group was active into 1971 when Corea founded his band Return to Forever. He would re-form the band several more times, and the band would stay active until 1980. During the 1980s, Corea played with his Akoustic Band and his Elektric Band, and during the 1990s and into the 2000s Corea remained an active performer. Several of his compositions, including “Windows” and “Spain,” have reached the status of jazz standards.
CORNET
A brass instrument with three valves, the cornet was also a predecessor of the modern trumpet. The cornet is more conical in construction than the trumpet, and the instrument produces a warmer, darker sound. Many early jazz artists played the cornet, including Buddy Bolden, Bix Beiderbecke, and Louis Armstrong, who switched to the trumpet in the early 1930s. Eventually improvements in the trumpet helped it surpass the cornet as the more popular instrument of the two. See also HANDY, W(ILLIAM) C(HRISTOPHER) (1873–1958); OLIVER, JOE “KING” (1885–1938); PETIT, BUDDY (1895–1931); SPANIER, FRANCIS JOSEPH JULIAN “MUGGSY” (1906–1967); STEWART, REX (1907–1967).
CORYELL, LARRY (1943–2017)
A guitarist originally influenced by Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, Larry Coryell moved to New York in 1965 to pursue a career as a musician and began playing with Chico Hamilton and then Free Spirits. After spending time with Gary Burton from 1967 to 1968 and Herbie Mann in 1968, Coryell formed the group Fourplay in 1969. He performed with this group until 1973 when he formed the jazz-rock band Eleventh House with Randy Brecker. During the late 1970s, Coryell switched to acoustic guitar and played in many small groups, and he also recorded with Charles Mingus and Sonny Rollins. After a brief hiatus in the early 1980s to deal with alcoholism and drug addiction, he toured with John McLaughlin, once again playing electric guitar. In the 1990s, Coryell freelanced and led his own groups while continuing to record. In 2007, Coryell published his autobiography, Improvising: My Life in Music.
COTTON CLUB
A famous nightclub in Harlem, it was notable for showcasing stage shows, bands, and dancers for a White-only clientele. The Duke Ellington Orchestra became known through its involvement from 1927 to 1931 as the house band and through radio broadcasts. The bands of both Fletcher Henderson and Cab Calloway preceded and followed (respectively) Ellington’s as house bands. Numerous celebrities frequented the establishment. See also MILLS BLUE RHYTHM BAND.
COUNTSMEN
A name given to several bands in the 1970s and 1980s whose members were former members of the Count Basie Orchestra and performed Basie’s repertoire.
COURBOIS, PIERRE (1940–)
A Dutch percussionist, Pierre Courbois started playing jazz with a Dixieland group in Arnhem in the mid-1950s. Throughout the 1960s he played with several groups, including the Original Dutch Free Jazz Group and the Free Music Quartet. From 1970 to 1975, Courbois led a free jazz group called Association PC, and after playing with several other groups, he formed New Association PC in 1984. In 1991 he formed Jubilation PC and in the late 1990s the Pierre Courbois Quintet. Courbois was honored with the Bird Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival, the highest award in the Dutch jazz world. He continues to perform with his QWINTEET and his SEXTETT. See also EUROPE.
COVINGTON, WARREN (1921–1999)
A trombonist who got his start playing with Isham Jones in 1939, then later worked with Les Brown in 1945 and Gene Krupa in 1946. In 1950 he played with Tommy Dorsey and took over Dorsey’s band following his death in 1958. He toured with the band from 1961 through the 1970s in addition to playing in several studio big bands and orchestras.
COWELL, STANLEY (1941–)
A pianist, Stanley Cowell moved to New York in 1966 and played with Max Roach (1967–1970) and then with the Bobby Hutcherson–Harold Land Quintet (1968–1971). In the 1970s he and Charles Tolliver cofounded the record label Strata-East. During the mid-1970s and 1980s, Cowell performed with the Heath brothers and with Larry Coryell. He has been active as an educator, having taught at Lehman College in New York and then for several decades in the Music Department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He continues to perform and record.
CRANE RIVER JAZZ BAND
A jazz band formed in England in 1949. See also ENGLAND.
CRANSHAW, BOB (1932–2016)
A bass player, Bob Cranshaw was a founding member of Walter Perkins’s MJT+3 in 1957. In 1960 he moved to New York, and by 1962 he began playing with Sonny Rollins, with whom he would continue