Gil Coggins

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Gil Coggins (* as Alvin Gibert Coggins on 23. August 1928 in New York City ; † 15. February 2004 in New York City) was an American jazz - pianist of hard bop . Gil Coggins will be remembered mainly because in the short period of his musical career he played with three of the most important musicians of modern jazz , with Miles Davis in 1952/53, with John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins in 1957.

Life

In 1952 Gil Coggins worked on Miles Davis' first session for the jazz label Blue Note Records (published as Young Man With A Horn ) and in 1953 on the second session ( Miles Davis, Vol. 2 ). At the same time, recordings with Lester Young were made . After that he was not musically active for several years, but then took part in the recording session of the Ray Draper Quartet with John Coltrane for the jazz label Prestige Records . He also recorded with Jackie McLean in 1957 with the Sonny Rollins' quartet . Coggins had few opportunities to record his own records ( Gil's Mood , 1990 with Interplay; Better Late Than Never , 2007 with Smalls) and was mainly involved in the club scene. Until an accident in 2003, from which he did not recover, he played every Saturday evening in the "C-Note" in the East Village in recent years .

Coltrane biographers Filtgen and Auserbauer write about Gil Coggins' style: On the Coltrane / Draper LP there is “very little - but all the more lasting - opportunity for the pianist Gil Coggins to put himself in the limelight. Unfortunately, he is an often underestimated hardbop talent. In his interpretation he prefers the 'single-note' style of playing with the extensive vocabulary of hard swinging pianists. "

Discography (excerpt)

  • Gil Coggins: Gil's mood (Interplay 9003, 1990)
  • Gil Coggins: Better late than never (unknown)
  • Gil Coggins: unissued Blue Note with Oscar Pettiford and Kenny Clarke (according to Michael Cuscuna the tapes are no longer in the Blue Note files)
  • Miles Davis: Young Man With A Horn (Blue Note 10-inch LP 5013, 1952) and Miles Davis, Vol. 2 (Blue Note 10-inch LP 5022, 1953)
  • The Ray Draper Quintet featuring John Coltrane ( New Jazz , 1957)
  • Jackie McLean: Makin 'The Changes (New Jazz, 1957)
  • Sonny Rollins Quintet / Thad Jones : Sonny Rollins Plays , 1956/57 (Period Records, 1958)

swell

  • Gerd Filtgen, Michael Auserbauer: John Coltrane - His life, his music, his records . Oreos, Schaftlach 1989.
  • Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1988.
  • Bielefeld catalog 1988 & 2002.
  • Obituary: Pianist with Coltrane, Miles, McLean at jazzhouse.org.

Remarks

  1. ↑ BLP 5013 and 5022, as well as Miles Davis, Vol. 3 (Blue Note 10-inch LP 5040), published in 1954, were released on the 12-inch records Miles Davis Volume 1 (Blue Note 1501) and Miles Davis Volume 2 in 1955 (Blue Note 1502) newly compiled.
personal data
SURNAME Coggins, Gil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coggins, Alvin Gibert (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH August 23, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 2004
Place of death New York City