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Gil Coggins - RIP


Chuck Nessa

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This was posted on Jazz Corner.

I received this second hand earlier today.

I do not know it's source but I do trust who sent it to me:

I'm sad to report that pianist Gil Coggins passed at noon today in New

York. Gil had been in the hospital with complications from an

automobile accident earlier this year. Many of your know Gilly as

pianist with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and Jackie McClean. He had

an uncanny sense of the beautiful in his playing, and his trademark

behind-the-beat phrasing was the perfect ballad complement. We heard

too little of him.

Always Know,

Steve Schwartz

Jazz From Studio 4

Friday, 7p-12a

WGBH, 89.7FM, Boston

www.wgbh.org

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Coggins also appeared on one of those things that George Braith released on his own label.

Talk about obscure. These Braith sides must be hard to find. So was the LP that Coggins recorded under his name. Never ran into that one.

Found this short report about the car accident he was involved in last Summer:

http://www.ejazznews.com/modules.php?op=mo...rticle&sid=1447

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Coggins also appeared on one of those things that George Braith released on his own label.

Talk about obscure. These Braith sides must be hard to find.

sohol.jpg

http://www.georgebraith.com/store.html

geobi@georgebraith.com

This disc doesn't seem to be offered through this page (but the Braith Family CD is, and THAT'S a piece of wack homemade coolness :tup ), but I bet an e-mail could get you hooked up.

Edited by JSngry
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The link is broken, however displayed correctly in your post, Jim. This, however, will work:

The Braith-o-Store

There are a lot of sound clips. I recommend anyone remotely interested to check them out. The message "To be released September, 2001" does not look too promising, though. A mail could, as Jim says, perhaps reveal some information.

Edit: Now Jim's link is working too!

Edited by Daniel A
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The link is broken, however displayed correctly in your post, Jim. This, however, will work:

The Braith-o-Store

There are a lot of sound clips. I recommend anyone remotely interested to check them out. The message "To be released September, 2001" does not look too promising, though. A mail could, as Jim says, perhaps reveal some information.

The link is correct now. I entered it wrong a few times. My bad.

That web site hasn't been updated for a while, but both CDs have been released. I know this for a fact. So an e-mail should get you the hookup. It worked like that for a friend of mine, and Braith even threw in a CDR of his OOP King CD for free. So talk nice to the man. ;)

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No Young on the sides so far released. Cross your fingers about the future. If Soul Stream was around (dude, you there?), he might have specifics.

Sound quality on the live stuff from the 70s varies. It's all "captured" if you know what I mean, and varies, but none of it sucks. A lot of it is pretty good, soundwise, and a few things are actually quite good. Worth a checkout, I think.

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We heard

too little of him.

Yeah, I love everything I've heard by him. His comping is a gas!

I heard that he recorded again a couple of years ago, and that a cd was supposedly released in Japan, but I have yet to find any confirmation of this.

If anyone has seen another Coggins leader session (besides "Gil's Mood") please post about it.

RIP Gil Coggins.

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I'm the one who wrote the capsule obituary that Chuck posted. It came from rec.audio.pro, and it is true. Gilly's brother and daughter are about to provide me with an official obituary, which I'll put out as soon as I get it.

I did produce three sessions with Gilly in 2001, 2002 in conjunction with his close friends, the Kuloks. One session was solo, the other two were trio. One of these trio sessions with Louis Hayes we also captured on video. For the sake of expendiency, a record was pressed privately out of some of those sides called "Better Late Than Never". I will see if some of these are available. I think these sides will end up on my label, which is where it originally started. A dose of sad irony in it, really.

He really knew what "pretty" was.

Luke

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 9 months later...

CogginsGil.jpg

Listening this afternoon to the few albums I have with Gil Coggins. Fine touch — reminds me of Tadd Dameron at times. His appearances on record seem patchy at best. Is there a discographical listing anywhere?

Too bad Bob Weinstock didn't hook Gilly up with a trio session ...

Introducing Gil Coggins

Gil Coggins: piano

Wilbur Ware: bass

Philly Joe Jones: drums

recorded April 3, 1957

Hackensack, New Jersey

... a guy can dream ...

:rlol

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I recognized Gil Coggins name as being the Gil Coggins who played on the Miles Davis VOLUME 1 Blue Note. I remember, when I first purchased the Davis RVG, reading the notes and wondering who Gil Coggins was. I'm listening, as I type these words, to the VOLUME 1 tracks Coggins is present on.

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Would be happy to finish up a Gil Coggins discography if someone owns the rare stuff and can supply details. Lord CDROM lists 13 sessions. I have 9 entered already (all the 1950s material). Don't have the 1940s sessions with Warren Lewis and Betty Mays nor the 1990 album nor the Braith mentioned above.

And of course, Lord does not have the Smalls records stuff, so if Luke can get me detailed session sheets on those, that would be fantastic.

The rough draft is here:

http://www.JazzDiscography.com/Temp/coggins-disc.htm

Mike

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Would be happy to finish up a Gil Coggins discography if someone owns the rare stuff and can supply details. Lord CDROM lists 13 sessions. I have 9 entered already (all the 1950s material). Don't have the 1940s sessions with Warren Lewis and Betty Mays nor the 1990 album nor the Braith mentioned above. 

And of course, Lord does not have the Smalls records stuff, so if Luke can get me detailed session sheets on those, that would be fantastic.

The rough draft is here:

http://www.JazzDiscography.com/Temp/coggins-disc.htm

Mike

I did three sessions with Gilly on behalf of the Kulok family, the benefactors of the project. Sam Kulok would have the detailed session notes in hand at the moment. Let me see if I can get them from him. Thanks as always, Mike, for undertaking the discography of a deserving artist who might otherwise remain in obscurity.

Luke

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  • 2 years later...

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