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“The speed of his mind and the strength of his fingers are such that
he articulates to pinpoint precision ideas that other pianists pass off as
half-realized whims. Like Art Tatum, he supplies sure left-hand voicings to
frame any darting movement his right hand makes, and he rips through double-handed
parallel figures, often with wide intervals. He has a sure and glinting touch;
listening to him provokes a secure, jacketed feeling.” – Ben Ratliff,
NY TIMES
 Stanley Cowell, pianist and composer, was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1941. He
studied piano there with Mary Belle Shealy and Elmer Gertz, and pipe organ
with J. Harold Harder. By the age of fifteen, he was a featured soloist with
the Toledo Youth Orchestra in Kabelevsky's Piano Concerto No. 3, a church organist/choir
director, and a budding jazz pianist.
Cowell's formal training in music has been quite extensive: a Bachelor of
Music degree from Oberlin Conservatory and a Master of Music degree from the
University of Michigan. He also has additional undergraduate study at the Mozarteum
Akademie, Salzburg, Austria, and graduate study at Wichita State University
and the University of Southern California. While at U.S.C., 1963-64, he performed
Gershwin's Concerto in F with the Burbank Symphony Orchestra, and played jazz
in the Los Angeles area with Curtis Amy's and Ray Crawford's bands.
After completing his Masters at Michigan in 1966, Cowell headed for New York
City where he worked for such musical artists as Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Herbie Mann, Miles Davis, Stan Getz and the Bobby Hutcherson-Harold
Land groups. For several years he was part of Charles Tolliver's Music Inc.,
with whom he formed the innovative musician-owned record company, Strata-East,
in 1971.
Cowell organized the Piano Choir in 1972, a group of seven esteemed New York-based
keyboardists, and he became a founding member of the Collective Black Artists,
Inc., a non-profit company devoted to bringing African-American music and
musicians to the public. He served as conductor of the CBA Ensemble, 1973-1974.
In 1974, he served as a musical director of George Wein's New York Jazz Repertory
Company at Carnegie Hall, along with Gil Evans, Dr. Billy Taylor and Sy Oliver.
During the seventies, Cowell
established his reputation as a versatile and sensitive pianist/composer,
performing and recording with Sonny Rollins, Clifford
Jordan, Oliver Nelson, Donald Byrd, Roy Haynes, Richard Davis, Art Pepper,
Jimmy Heath and many more great musical artists.
From 1974-1984 he toured, recorded and conducted workshops throughout the
Americas, Europe and Japan as the featured pianist with the Heath Brothers
(Percy, Jimmy and Albert).
He was a recipient of a Meet The Composer/Rockefeller Foundation/AT&T
Jazz Program grant for 1990-1991, for the creation of "Piano Concerto
No. 1" (in honor of Art Tatum), which was premiered by the Toledo Symphony
Orchestra, January 17, 18, 1992.
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