Bobby Timmons Piano, Composer December 19, 1935 -- March 1, 1974

Bobby Timmons

"Bobby has the capacity to dig in deeply without sounding like a bulldozer. He can convey strong emotion and still float buoyantly."

--Nat Hentoff

Bobby Timmons studied piano from the age of six. After moving to New York in 1954 he played bop with Kenny Dorham's Jazz Prophets (1956), Chet Baker (1956-57), Sonny Stitt (1957), and Maynard Ferguson (1957-58).

While a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (1958-59), with whom he toured Europe, he became well known for his composition Moanin', a funky, gospel-oriented tune. From 1959 to 1960 Timmons worked with Cannonball Adderley and recorded two further soul-jazz compositions that became hits, This Here (also called Dis Here) and Dat Dere.

He rejoined Blakey briefly in 1960, but thereafter his career declined rapidly because of alcoholism, possibly brought on by artistic frustration. Timmons was a sophisticated and versatile pianist, but he became stereotyped and inhibited by the success of his simple compositions.

--BARRY KERNFELD, The New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz

A selected discography of Bobby Timmons albums.

• This Here Is Bobby Timmons, 1960, Riverside.
• Soul Time, 1960, Riverside.
• Easy Does It, 1961, Riverside.
• Bobby Timmons In Person, 1961, Riverside.

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