Jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb, the last surviving member of the Kind of Blue recording sessions, died Sunday at the age of 91.
NPR reports that the cause was lung cancer, according to Cobb’s wife, Eleana Tee Cobb. Earlier this year, the family had launched an online fundraiser to help with the costs of his illness.
Cobb’s drumming gave a swinging, floating feel to Miles Davis’s seminal, best-selling record Kind of Blue. Cobb was the rhythmic backbone of the group often known as Davis’s first great sextet.
Cobb also performed on several other Miles Davis albums, including Sketches of Spain and Someday My Prince Will Come. Other artists with whom Cobb had worked include John Coltrane, Nat and Cannonball Adderley, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Benny Golson and Wes Montgomery.
“Jimmy blew me away with his playing on the Miles Davis Kind of Blue recording, and I have been a fan ever since,” wrote jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette. “Jimmy left an amazing musical legacy which will never go away. May he be at peace.”