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Gil Coggins

Alvin Gilbert "Gil" Coggins was born to parents of West Indian heritage. His mother was a pianist and had her son start on piano from an early age. He attended school in New York City and the Barbados. In Harlem, New York City, he attended The High School of Music & Art. In 1946, Coggins met Miles Davis while stationed at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri. After his discharge he began playing piano professionally, working with Davis on several of his Blue Note and Prestige releases. Coggins also recorded with John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Ray Draper, and Jackie McLean. Coggins gave up playing jazz professionally in 1954 and took up a career in real estate, playing music only occasionally. He did not record as a leader until 1990, when Interplay Records released Gil's Mood. He continued performing through the 1990s and 2000s until 2004, when he died from complications sustained in a car crash eight months earlier in Forest Hills, New York. 'Better Late Than Never, his second album recorded as a leader, was released posthumously.


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209
Album Review

Ray Draper: The Ray Draper Quintet Featuring John Coltrane

Read "The Ray Draper Quintet Featuring John Coltrane" reviewed by Douglas Payne


What makes this fairly typical bop outing unique is that the leader plays tuba. Ray Draper (1940-82) was only 17 when he recorded this quintet date in 1957, his third of three for Prestige, and, as much as possible, he makes the clunky instrument swing. As Ira Gitler's interesting notes point out, the tuba was a pretty common rhythm instrument in the early days of jazz. Then the string bass came along and took its place. Draper, who was featured ...

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175
Obituary

Remembering Pianist Gil Coggins

Remembering Pianist Gil Coggins

Source: All About Jazz

On February 15, 2004, the nursing staff at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center informed Gil Coggins' family that he quietly and peacefully took one last shallow breath and slipped away into the spiritual world. On June 8, 2003, Gil was involved in a serious auto accident on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, NY, and his body was unable to recover from his numerous injuries, complications, and pre-existing conditions.

Gil, the oldest of two sons, was born in NYC to ...

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