Gil Coggins

Gil Coggins, Better Late Than Never (Smalls). The first phase of pianist Coggins' career tapered off in the mid-1950s after he recorded with Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Jackie McLean. Although his work was distinct from his contemporary John Lewis, he shared with Lewis a spare approach to soloing, and chords in his accompaniments that often formed complementary melodies. Coggins went into real estate in 1954, continuing to work in jazz occasionally and recording with McLean as late as 1957.

Gil Coggins ca. 1954

Over the next four decades he moonlighted in lounges around New York, in 1999 returning to recording with a Japanese import CD now out of circulation. Shortly after the turn of the century, he made Better Late Than Never. Coggins never recovered from an auto crash in 2003 and died of his injuries in 2004 at the age of 79. The CD was released this year by Smalls, the label of a lower Manhattan club that tends to feature adventurous music.

Coggins' playing on this album is neither cutting-edge nor a throwback to the fifties. There is a timelessness to it, dark harmonic beauty and a deliberate, almost hesitant, rhythmic quality suggesting that he was contemplating every phrase. He unrolls the Charles Mingus tune "Smooch" with exquisite slowness, so that every chord and run seems to exist in its own space. At faster tempos, he takes similar ruminative approaches in pieces including Tadd Dameron's "The Scene Is Clean," Neal Hefti's "Repetition" and the standards "I'm Old Fashioned" and "Isn't It Romantic?" The cumulative effect is curiously relaxing, nearly mesmerizing. Drum duties are shared by the veterans Louis Hayes and Jimmy Wormworth, with Mike Fitzbenjamin on bass. This is a fine remembrance of an artist who had the talent and individuality to be an influential figure but chose to make music his secondary occupation.

Next time: Impressions of a few other CDs on the Smalls label.