Jon Cowherd is an American pianist, composer, arranger, and record producer born to a trombone player (father) and classically trained violinist (mother), both of whom were also educators. Jon began piano lessons at the age of five and trumpet and violin lessons at ten years of age. Cowherd is most well known for his partnership with

jazz drummer Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion (predominantly the drum kit, which includes a variety of drums and cymbals) in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz fusion and 1980s-era Latin jazz. The techniques an ...

Brian Blade Brian Blade (born July 25, 1970) is an American jazz drummer, composer, session musician, and singer-songwriter. Early life Blade was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. The first music he experienced was gospel and songs of praise at ...

, with whom he co-founded the Brian Blade Fellowship. When not recording and touring with the Fellowship, Cowherd works extensively with a broad array of players and singers from the

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, pop and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

worlds.Jon Cowherd
Bio: Jon Cowherd
Jon Cowherd, Referenced November 2013.ArtistShare
ArtistShare FeaturedArtists
ArtistShare.com, Retrieved November 2013.

Biography

Cowherd was born and raised in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. Being a son of musicians (and music educators), Cowherd began music at an early age singing, playing the piano,

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

. He moved to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

to attend Loyola University, where he studied jazz piano and improvisation under Ellis Marsalis,

John Mahoney Charles John Mahoney (June 20, 1940 – February 4, 2018) was an English-born American actor. He was known for playing Martin Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Frasier'' (1993–2004), and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for the role in 2000. Mahoney ...

, and Steve Masakowski. The Brian Blade Fellowship album ''Season of Changes'' was released around 2008.Chinen, Nat
Critics' Choice-New CDs Review
NYTimes, May 12, 2008. Cowherd also worked with Brian Blade in his debut singer-songwriter album ''Mama Rosa'', which was released in 2009 on

Verve Records Verve Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the label is home to the world's largest jazz catalogue, which includes recordings by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, ...

.Kelman, Joh
Brian Blade: Mama Rosa
AllAboutJazz.com, April 21, 2009. As a producer, Cowherd has overseen albums by

Lizz Wright Elizabeth LaCharla Wright (born January 22, 1980) is an American jazz and gospel singer. Life and career Wright was born in the small town of Hahira, Georgia, one of three children and the daughter of a minister and the musical director of t ...

Alyssa Graham Alyssa Graham (born Alyssa Hope Altschul) is an American singer-songwriter. In 2005, she launched her solo music career with the release of the album, ''What Love Is'', which was heralded by ''All About Jazz'' as one of the Best New Recordings of ...

and The Local NYC. Cowherd's debut album as a leader, ''Mercy'', was released in 2013 on

ArtistShare ArtistShare is the internet's first commercial crowdfunding website.Crowd-Funding 101: What Every Musician Needs for a Successful Campaign It also operates as a record label and business model for artists which enables them to fund their projec ...

. It features

John Patitucci John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz bassist and composer. Biography John James Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. When he was 12, he bought his first bass and decided on his career. He listened to bass parts in R ...

, and

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Frisell first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts ...

. Reviewing the album for allaboutjazz, John Kelman wrote: "With music this well-conceived and a band so telepathically connected, it may have taken Cowherd a long time to release an album under his own name, but with ''Mercy'' as the result, it's been well worth the wait; hopefully there won't be such a long one for the follow-up."

Discography

As leader

* ''Mercy'' (2013,

) * ''Pride & Joy'' (2023)

As a co-leader

With Brian Blade Fellowship * '' Brian Blade Fellowship'' (1998,

Blue Note Records Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue notes of jazz and the blues. Or ...

) * ''

Perceptual Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sense, sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous ...

'' (2000, Blue Note Records) * '' Season of Changes'' (2008,

) * ''Landmarks'' (2014, Blue Note Records) * ''Body and Shadow'' (2017, Blue Note Records)

As sideman

* Meg Okura: ''Peace In My Heart'' (1995) * Swing: ''The Original Broadway Cast Recording'' (1999) * Mark Olson and the Creek Dippers: '' Zola and the Tulip Tree'' (2000) * Steve Sacks: ''Look to the Sky'' (2001) * Ari Ambrose: ''Waiting'' (2003,

SteepleChase Records SteepleChase Records is a jazz record company and label based in Copenhagen, Denmark. SteepleChase was founded in 1972 by Nils Winther, who was a student at Copenhagen University at the time. He began recording concerts at Jazzhus Montmartre, wh ...

) * Liz Wright: ''Salt'' (2003,

) * The Local: ''Just Show Up'' (2004, Budron Records) * Marshall Gilkes: ''Edenderry'' (2005, Alternate Side Records) * Kingsborough Hymns: (2005) *

Jack Wilkins Jack Rivers Lewis (born June 4, 1944), known professionally as Jack Wilkins, is a jazz guitarist. Career A native of New York City, Wilkins grew up listening to his parents' music, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Billie Holiday. He ...

: ''Until It's Time'' (2005,

Maxjazz Maxjazz (corporately styled MAXJAZZ) was an American jazz record label founded in 1998 by investment banker Richard McDonnell. Maxjazz recordings are generally regarded as a "straight-ahead" acoustic style of jazz. It was based in St. Louis, Miss ...

) * Metta Quintet: ''Subway Songs'' (2006,

Sunnyside Records Sunnyside Records is an American jazz record company and label established by François Zalacain in 1982 initially to release an album by pianist Harold Danko. Albums by Kirk Lightsey and Lee Konitz soon followed beginning a sequence of releases ...

) * Mariel Larsen: ''Mariel Larsen'' (2007, Coco Jazz) *

Chris Tarry Chris Tarry (born 24 August 1970) is a Canadian bass guitarist who is a member of the band Metalwood Metalwood is a Canadian jazz band from Toronto, Ontario. the band was active in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and reunited in 2016. The memb ...

: ''Sorry to be Strange'' (2007) *

Nicolas Thys Nicolas Thys (born 27 August 1968) is a Belgian bassist. He graduated in 1994 from the Hilversum Conservatory (in the Netherlands), where he also taught bass and double bass. Thys took private lessons with Dave Holland, Marc Helias and Mar ...

: ''Virgo'' (2008, Pirouette Records) *

Myron Walden Myron Walden (born October 18, 1972) is a jazz saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. Biography Born in Miami, Florida, Walden moved to The Bronx at the age of 12. His interest in the alto saxophone developed when he witnessed the close att ...

: ''In This World'' (2008, Demi Sound Records) * Marshall Gilkes: ''Lost Words'' (2008, Alternate Side Records) * Pamela Luss: ''Your Eyes'' (2008, Savant) *

: ''Echo'' (2008,

/Walrus) *

: ''Mama Rosa'' (2009,

) * Matt Lemler: ''New Orleans Revival Project'' (2009) *

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

: ''

Préliminaires ''Préliminaires'' is the fifteenth studio album by American rock singer Iggy Pop, released in Europe on May 25, 2009 by record label Astralwerks, and in the US on June 2. It was inspired by the singer's reading of Michel Houellebecq's novel '' ...

'' (2009,

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

) *

Marcus Strickland Marcus Strickland (born February 24, 1979) is an American jazz soprano, alto, and tenor saxophonist. He was born in Gainesville, Florida, and grew up in Miami. '' Down Beat'' magazine's Critics' Poll named him 'Rising Star on Tenor Saxophone' in ...

: ''Open Reel Deck'' (Strick Muzik, 2009) *

Rosanne Cash Rosanne Cash (born May 24, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country musician Johnny Cash and Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, Johnny Cash's first wife. Although she is often classified as a country art ...

: ''We Three Kings'' (2010,

) *

Marc Cohn Marc Craig Cohn (; born July 5, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1992. Cohn is best known for the song "Walking in Memphis" from his eponymous 1991 album, which was a Top 40 h ...

: ''Listening Booth 1970'' (2010, Saguaro Road Records) * Chrissi Poland: ''Songs From the Concrete'' (2010, Danben Records) * Kevin Kinney: ''Good Country Mile'' (2011) * Davy Mooney: ''Perrier Street'' (2011,

) * Maria Logis: ''Room for Something New'' (2012) *

Cassandra Wilson Cassandra Wilson (born December 4, 1955) is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. She is one of the most successful female Jazz singers and has been described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed wi ...

: '' Coming Forth by Day'' (Legacy, 2015)

References

External links

Official Jon Cowherd Website

Official Jon Cowherd Facebook Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowherd, Jon Living people Manhattan School of Music alumni Grammy Award winners Record producers from Kentucky Jazz record producers American jazz musicians Year of birth missing (living people) American male pianists 21st-century American pianists 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians ArtistShare artists