Stanley Cowell

(News story) Stanley Cowell, who emerged from Toledo to become an internationally acclaimed pianist, composer, and jazz educator, co-founded an influential music label and, taking a cue from his entrepreneur parents, owned the rights to his compositions, died Thursday in Bayhealth Hospital, Dover, Del. He was 79.

Recent health problems resulted in hypovolemic shock, his wife, Sylvia Cowell said.

He continued to play and perform until he became ill, his wife said. A recording, Live At Keystone Korner Baltimore, from an October, 2019, performance, was released last month, featuring an all-star quintet - his daughter Sunny sings on one tune - and a program mostly of Cowell originals, including his composition "Montage For Toledo."

In the 1970s, he and trumpeter Charles Tolliver founded Strata-East Records. The independent label's releases included Mr. Cowell's Piano Choir of pianists and multiple grand pianos and Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." From the start, he held the rights to his own catalog and compositions, his wife said.

"Stanley was a bit wise beyond his years and watching his parents work and own their own business was an important lesson," his wife said.

Mr. Cowell was a professor emeritus of jazz piano at Rutgers University. He previously was on the faculty of Lehman College in New York. Working with students offered him new perspectives, his wife said.

"He was always seeking something new. He wasn't afraid to try something new," his wife said. University music ensembles served as workshop and laboratory as he tried out music he'd written.

And just as the university encouraged faculty to perform in public, he encouraged students to take the bandstand or concert stage.

"Something new might be discovered. That's the actual creative side of live performance," his wife said. "He'd say [to students] that you have to listen. It's not just about you. It's about the group."

Former students include trumpeter Sean Jones, a Warren, Ohio, native, and pianist Jason Moran, who wrote on social media that Mr. Cowell "invented pathways for the piano.

"Many times his two hands sounded as if they were six," Mr. Moran wrote. "The drums in the left hand, the strings or guitar in the middle, the horns and the voices up high, the kalimba down below. He was the soulful scientist of the piano."

Mr. Moran noted that Mr. Cowell and jazz piano legend Art Tatum share Toledo as a birthplace.

"And on the piano, that might be the best comparison, as if Art Tatum lived through the Black Power Movement. These ties are essential," Mr. Moran wrote.

He was born May 5, 1941, in Toledo to Willie Hazel and Stanley Cowell. His parents owned Collingwood Motel, which included a record store and what became George's Grill on Indiana Avenue. Jon Hendricks, who grew up in Toledo and was known later for his vocalese mastery, performed there as a young man.

He began piano studies early, and at age 6 played a tune from an exercise book when Mr. Tatum, more than a decade gone from Toledo, visited the family home. Mr. Tatum then played the popular song, "You Took Advantage of Me," with typical Tatumesque flourish.

"He played it so strongly and so powerfully that my mother left the room and went into the kitchen, kind of shaken and seemingly upset," Mr. Cowell said in 1982, for an article in The Blade's Toledo Magazine. "I asked her what was wrong, and she said, 'Oh, that man plays too much piano.'"

Mr. Cowell pursued classical studies in piano, featured as a soloist in 1956 with the Toledo Youth Orchestra. Works by Bach and Mendelssohn were his program during a church organ recital, and he gave a solo piano recital at the main library downtown, both in 1958.

Yet the visit by Mr. Tatum - their only meeting - defined his artistic path, he told The Blade in 2009, in advance of a tribute concert for Mr. Tatum's centenary, presented by the African American Legacy Project of Northwest Ohio. In 1992, he performed his "Piano Concerto No. 1," written as a tribute to Mr. Tatum, with the Toledo Symphony.

"I never wanted to play like Tatum," Mr. Cowell said in 2009. "But I've been stamped by the mention of the connection to Tatum in Toledo and the early experience of having him in my house."

Doug Swiatecki, who is working on a history of jazz and Toledo, said that Mr. Cowell "pushed jazz onward, which is saying something. We've had three guys who have done that - Tatum, Hendricks, and Stanley Cowell. This a big deal for Toledo. We're overlooked in the history of Jazz, and we shouldn't be."

Mr. Cowell was a 1958 graduate of Scott High School. Departure, one of his hallmark compositions, according to Chris Richards, Washington Post pop music critic, was written the summer between high school and his start at Oberlin College, from which he received a bachelor of music and an honorary doctorate. He had a master of music degree from the University of Michigan.

While in his 20s, he had a chance to play with his musical heroes, drummer Max Roach and trumpeter Miles Davis among them, his wife said.

He was formerly married to the late Effi Slaughter Barry and to Victoria McLaughlin.

Surviving are his wife, the former Sylvia Potts, whom he married April 3, 1989; daughters Sunny Cowell and Sienna Cowell, and sister, Esther Cowell.

Visitation will be from 11 a.m.-noon Wednesday, followed by a service, at Torbert Funeral Chapel, Dover, Del.

This is a news story by Mark Zaborney. Contact him at mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.