Jack Coker

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John Albert "Jack" Coker (born 1929 in South Bend, Indiana ; † June 5, 2016 ) was an American jazz pianist and music teacher .

Live and act

Coker studied at Indiana University and played with jazz greats like Wes Montgomery and Slide Hampton in the 1950s . In 1955 he recorded the album Modern Music from Indiana University for Fantasy Records , on which u. a. Monk Montgomery participated. The following year a live recording was made with Wes Montgomery (released in 2015 on the album In the Beginning: Early Recordings from 1949-1958 on Resonance Records ). In later years he worked as an accompanist for entertainers such as Sammy Davis Jr. , Red Skelton , Vikki Carr and The Modernaires ; he also played in the orchestras of Woody Herman , Nelson Riddle and Tex Beneke . In the 1960s he also performed at the Concord Jazz Festival ; in the 1990s he taught jazz piano and music theory at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c John Albert "Jack" Coker (1929-2016) Obituary. June 20, 2016, accessed June 20, 2016 .
  2. Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed June 19, 2016)