Stanley Cowell
Cowell playing with the Heath Brothers in Rockefeller Center, June 1977
Background information
Born	(1941-05-05)May 5, 1941 Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
Died	December 17, 2020(2020-12-17) (aged 79) Dover, Delaware, U.S.
Genres	Jazz
Occupation	Musician
Instrument	Piano
Labels	Arista, DIW, Galaxy, SteepleChase, Strata-East
Formerly of	Roland Kirk, Marion Brown, Charles Tolliver, Max Roach

Stanley Cowell (May 5, 1941 – December 17, 2020) was an American jazz pianist and co-founder of the Strata-East Records label.

Early life

Cowell was born in Toledo, Ohio.^[1] He began playing the piano around the age of four, and became interested in jazz after seeing Art Tatum, at the age of six, playing You Took Advantage of Me at his parents' house. Tatum was a family friend.^[2]

After high school, Cowell studied classical piano with Emil Danenberg at Oberlin Conservatory of Music^[3] He included "Emil Danenberg" in his 1973 suite "Musa: Ancestral Dreams".^[4] During his time at Oberlin, he played with jazz multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk, which proved to be formative.^[1] He went on to receive a graduate degree in classical piano from the University of Michigan. He moved to New York in the mid-1960s.^[1]

Later life and career

Cowell played with Marion Brown, Max Roach, Bobby Hutcherson, Clifford Jordan, Harold Land, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz.^[5] Cowell played with trumpeter Charles Moore and others in the Detroit Artist's Workshop Jazz Ensemble in 1965–66.

In 1971, Cowell co-founded the record label Strata-East with trumpeter Charles Tolliver. The label would become one of the most successful Black-led, independent labels of its day.^[6]

During the late 1980s, Cowell was part of a regular quartet led by J.J. Johnson.^[7] Cowell taught in the Music Department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

On December 17, 2020, Cowell died at Bayhealth Hospital in Dover, Delaware, from hypovolemic shock. He was 79 years old.^[8]

Discography

References

External links

• Rutgers U site
• Stanley Cowell discography at Discogs