La nostalgie de Nice avec un grand Arnett Cobb

Un peu de la nostalgie venant du Nice Jazz Festival avec le Swinging Big Band de Lionel Hampton et
le très grand saxophoniste ténor de Texas: Arnett Cobb.

Amusez vous en écoutant ce video !    http://crownpropeller.wordpress.com/

Unpublished Interview with Arnett Cobb (1980)

Posted in Arnett Cobb, clips, documents, Lionel Hampton with tags 1974,1980, Arnett Cobb, Baden, Interview, jazz, Lionel Hampton on January 12, 2013 by crownpropeller

My friend, the late swiss jazz researcher Otto Flückiger, was a great fan of tenor saxophonist Arnett Cobb (1918–1989). So when Otto went on a trip through the USA in spring of 1980 he took the chance to visit Cobb in his hometown, Houston TX.

Arnett Cobb with Otto Flückiger in Cobb’s home, Houston TX, spring 1980.
Photo probably by Trudi Flückiger.

On that occasion Otto interviewed Cobb about his career,  playing with Frank Davis, going to Chicago with Milton Larkin to play at the Rhumboogie, joining Lionel Hampton, forming his own band and the auto accident that dramatically changed Cobb’s life. There are about 40 minutes from this interview on a C90 cassette tape which I found in Otto’s collection:

So I decided to digitize this – unpublished as far as I know – fantastic interview. I just edited out some longer passages of silence and some parts where the conversation is running in circles and into dead ends caused by translation problems. The female voice in the later parts of the interview is Trudi, Otto’s wife, who probably also took the photo of Cobb and Otto shown at the top.

I was always waiting to find the time to transcribe the interview, but I probably never will. So I am putting it up here for you all to hear and cherish yourself:

If you came here because you like Arnett Cobb. I got something more for you. First some nice photographs that Otto Flückiger took when Arnett Cobb appeared in Baden, Switzerland on May 4, 1974 (you can click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge) Arnett Cobb at a concert in Baden, Switzerland, 1974.
Photos by Otto Flückiger

And here is some footage of Arnett Cobb featured with the Lionel Hampton Band in Nice, France in summer 1978.

 Enjoy!