Jimmy Cobb, Who Drummed On Kind Of Blue, Dead At 91

The legendary jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb has died at 91. As NPR reports, the cause of death was lung cancer. Cobb was part of Miles Davis’ First Great Sextet. He was the last surviving member of the band that played on Davis’ landmark Kind Of Blue.

He was born Wilbur James Cobb in 1929 and grew up in Washington, DC. At age 13, he bought his first drum set with money that he earned as a busboy. He was primarily self-taught, and he moved to New York City when he was 21 and started playing with vocalist Dinah Washington. From there, he’d link up with Cannonball and Nat Adderley, and it was through them that he met Davis.

In addition to playing on Kind Of Blue, he would record a few other albums with Davis, including Sketches Of Spain and Someday My Prince Will Come, before leaving the band in the 1960s and leading a trio with fellow former Davis associates Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers.

He became a bandleader only later in his career, starting in the 1980s with an album called So Nobody Else Can Hear. He would put out a handful of solo albums in the years after that, and he also became a mentor to younger jazz musicians through teaching at schools. His most recent solo album, This I Dig Of You, came out last year and was highlighted in our Month In Jazz column.