NEW BLOG: Champian Remembers Jimmy Cobb
“It was a sign. A handwritten photocopied sign stuck to a community bulletin board on Macdougal St., and it read “LIVE TONIGHT! Frank Wess & Jimmy Cobb FAT CAT 9 PM $5″ I honestly didn’t believe it was a real sign advertising a real event. It was my first weekend in New York City. My parents were dropping me off to start my freshman year of college and that Sunday afternoon we were just strolling around the West Village exploring. I was only 17 but I was already obsessed with being a Jazz musician, and I certainly knew who Frank Wess and Jimmy Cobb were. After some investigating (these were pre-google days, I had to call 411), I found out that Fat Cat was a Billiards Hall not far from where we stood, but when I called, no one answered. So we decided to just show up there at 9 PM and see what was happening.
I simply couldn’t believe my luck when we walked down those stairs and saw the actual gig. Indeed, Frank Wess and Jimmy Cobb were performing as part of a quartet that I would later find out was run by guitarist Ilya Lushtak. In those days………(click here to continue reading)”