Jimmy Rowles

• Genre: West Coast Jazz
• Hometown: Spokane

About

Jimmy Rowles makes great artists sound even better. His piano’s crisp, relaxed combination of Swing and Bop made Rowles a staple of the West Coast Jazz scene in the '40s, '50s and '60s. Rowles played regularly with name bands, musicians, and singers such as Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Peggy Lee and Henry Mancini, and rarely got a chance to shine on his own. All that changed when he moved to New York in 1973. Though he continued to work with peers like Stan Getz and Ella Fitzgerald, he started recording prolifically under his own name. His tune “The Peacocks” has become a standard and was featured in the film Round Midnight. Rowles, a powerful vocalist and stalwart ivory tinkler, was jazz vocalist Diana Krall’s teacher and she spreads his Gospel wherever she goes.

- Nick Dedina