Stanley Cowell stands out among modern jazz pianists for his esteemed status and a body of work that extends the reach of forward-thinking hard bop while remaining distinct from outright avant-garde exploration. He came into the world in Toledo, Ohio, in 1941, began piano lessons near age four, and first encountered jazz through the music of family friend Art Tatum. After completing high school, he attended the Oberlin College Conservatory and the University of Michigan, gaining early professional experience during that period through performances with Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
Midway through the 1960s he settled in New York City and maintained ongoing associations with Marion Brown in 1966 and 1967, Max Roach from 1967 to 1970, and the Bobby Hutcherson-Harold Land Quintet between 1968 and 1971. His debut recording as a leader came on the Arista-Freedom label in 1969 with Blues for the Viet Cong, followed the same year by Brilliant Circles. He next recorded Illusion Suite for ECM in 1973.
During the first half of the 1970s Cowell maintained a steady partnership with trumpeter Charles Tolliver, and together they established the Strata East label; several well-regarded albums resulted, among them the 1974 solo piano release Musa: Ancestral Streams and Regeneration from 1975. He also performed regularly with the Heath Brothers while issuing additional solo piano albums for Galaxy Records, including Waiting for the Moment in 1977 and Equipoise in 1978.
Beginning in 1981 he divided his schedule between performances and academic posts, starting at CUNY’s Lehman College and later devoting several decades to Rutgers University in New Jersey. Throughout those years he continued studio work and developed a productive association with SteepleChase Records, which released the well-received albums Sienna in 1989, Angel Eyes in 1993, and Hear Me One in 1997.
Subsequent releases on the label included 2010’s Prayer for Peace, which featured vocals by his daughter Sunny Cowell. Two years afterward he recorded It’s Time with former Rutgers students bassist Tom Dicarlo and drummer Chris Brown, then issued Welcome to This New World with the Empathlectrik Quartet in 2013 and Are You Real? in 2014. In 2017 he delivered his fifteenth album for SteepleChase, No Illusions, featuring saxophonist/flutist Bruce Williams, bassist Jay Anderson, and drummer Billy Drummond. Stanley Cowell died on December 17, 2020, in Dover, Delaware, at the age of 79.
