Jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb has died from lung cancer, NPR reports. He was 91 years old.
Jimmy Cobb was born in Washington, D.C. in 1929. He left home in 1950 for his first traveling gig, touring with Earl Bostic. By 1959, at just 30 years old, Cobb played his best known work, drumming for Miles Davis on Kind of Blue. Cobb played on subsequent Davis records, including Sketches of Spain, and then continued to work with his Kind of Blue bandmates Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers across several albums.
In 1983, Jimmy Cobb released his first album as a bandleader, So Nobody Else Can Hear. He continued to release albums as recently as last year when he played on This I Dig of You and Cobb’s Pocket.
Across his distinguished career, Jimmy Cobb worked with John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Cannonball Adderley, and more. He was given the National Endowment for the Arts’ NEA Jazz Masters Award in 2009.