Patrick Cowan

Bassist Patrick Cowan has performed with a diverse roster of jazz greats and notables including Buddy Collette, Philip Harper (Art Blakey, Harper Brothers), Jerry Byrd (Freddie Cole, Jack McDuff, Sam Rivers), Mimi Fox, Michael Santiago (Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan), Eddie Marshall (Bobby Hutcherson, Stan Getz, Ahmad Jhamal), Kermit Walker, Ali Hassan (Sun Ra), Adam Levy (Norah Jones), Kim Nalley, Scotty Wright, and many others. As an orchestral musician, he has backed such luminaries as legendary crooner Tony Bennett, jazz sax master David Murray, and opera diva Kathleen Battle.

Patrick Cowan grew up in West Virginia and began playing classical violin at age 17. He was soon performing regularly as a freelancer and as a member of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Inspired by the music of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and legendary jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, Mr. Cowan began playing jazz and entered the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was the recipient of the Joe Venuti Scholarship and twice recipient of the Stephane Grappelli Award. While in Boston, he studied privately with world-renown jazz improvisation educators Jerry Bergonzi and Charlie Banacos. A shoulder injury forced him to quit the violin and, upon moving to the West Coast, he took up the double bass. He quickly entrenched himself in the San Francisco jazz scene, performing in the Bay Area extensively for twelve years before moving to Atlanta, where he currently resides and performs.

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