Free to drum students, Sept. 4 session

Precedes “NEA Jazz Masters Concert”

LENOX, Mass., Aug. 2011 — NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Cobb will present a Master Class for Drummers on Sunday, September 4, at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival. The master class –which is free to drum students of all ages– will begin at 12:30pm in the Jazz Café Tent, on September 4, closing day of the 3-day festival.

Jimmy Cobb is the last surviving member of the iconic jazz recording “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis. In the one-hour master class, he will be accompanied by the rhythm section of his new group, the Coast-to-Coast Septet, who will perform with him on the mainstage at Ozawa Hall at 2:00 pm.

Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, drum students will receive free admission to the master class. All ticket holders to the 2pm mainstage concert are also welcome to observe the master class on a space-available basis. Advertisement

The Tanglewood Jazz Festival is working with Berkshires Jazz on the project. Drum students interested in free admission to the master class must register in advance with Edward Bride, president of Berkshires Jazz, at 413-442-7718 or Ed@berkshiresjazz.org.

A superb, mostly self-taught musician, Jimmy Cobb is the elder statesman of all the incredible Miles Davis bands. Hiss inspirational work with Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly and others spanned 1957 until 1963, and included the masterpiece “Kind of Blue,” the most popular jazz recording in history. He also played on “Sketches of Spain,” Someday My Prince will Come,” “Live at Carnegie Hall, “Live at the Blackhawk,” “Porgy and Bess,” and other watermark Miles Davis recordings..

Constantly being approached to teach what he knows and loves to aspiring jazz musicians all over the world, Cobb has traveled annually for the last 9 years to Stanford University to teach Master Classes for the University’s Jazz Workshop. He has taught for Parsons: The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, at the University of Greensboro in North Carolina, for The International Center for the arts at San Francisco State University, for St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia Canada, for the Berklee College of Music in Boston and at numerous educational institutions throughout the globe. Advertisement

Cobb is one of two NEA Jazz Masters who will be featured on the Tanglewood Jazz Festival mainstage on Sept. 4. The other is composer/conductor/author/educator Gunther Schuller, who will lead the Mingus Orchestra in its performance.

This year’s festival performers include the Federico Britos Sextet; John Santos Sextet; Coast to Coast Septet; Jimmy Cobb; Mary Stallings, the Mingus Orchestra conducted by NEA Jazz Master Gunther Schuller; Judy Carmichael; Angelique Kidjo; Dianne Reeves; and Lizz Wright. Ticket prices range from $19 – 77. An all-day lawn pass is $34.

Further information is available at 888-266-1200, or www.tanglewood.org