NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Cobb’s “This I Dig of You” is a effortlessly swinging, new classic ready to take its place as one of the highlights in his indispensable 70-years of recordings.
Name a canonical jazz artist and chances are Jimmy Cobb has shared a stage or recording studio with them. Starting at the age of 21 all the way up to his new
album “This I Dig of You,” Cobb has been not just “a jazz drummer” but “the jazz drummer”, a musician unmatched in technique and experience. And, 60 years ago, of course, Cobb played on the most indelible record in jazz history, “Kind Of Blue.” This new recording, with a band of Cobb’s longtime collaborators pianist Harold Mabern, guitarist Peter Bernstein, and bassist John Webber pays tribute to that seminal album by proving that it’s still not yet history.
The 90-year-old drummer, after all, is as vital and thoughtful as he ever was as he swings through standards and contemporary compositions alike. The album’s classic, rich swing was recorded with a casualness that recalls the kind of sessions Cobb was booked for during the music’s heyday. But, the thing that makes the album so special isn’t the design of the tracklist it’s the precision and detail the legendary drummer uses to carefully guide each song, responding to and amplifying the incredible soloists.
