Reconsidering the Cos

Bill Cosby, circa 1956 [playing Basketball for the Navy]

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band!
Warner Bros. : 1968
[Listen]

Reach Out [I'll be There]
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band!
Warner Bros. : 1968
[Listen]

Ursalena
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band!
Warner Bros. : 1968
[Listen]

Funky North Philadelphia
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band!
Warner Bros. : 1968
[Listen]

Hikky-Burr [Bill Cosby vocal take]
Quincy Jones & Bill Cosby
The Original Jam Sessions 1969
Concord Records : 2004
[Listen]

Martin's Funeral
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby Presents... Badfoot Brown and the Bunions Bradford Funeral & Marching Band
Uni : 1971
[Listen]

Does everyone remember those episodes of The Cosby Show, where Cliff and Clair would end up at some Brooklyn studios, and Cliff would be hanging with all the jazz musicians and pretending to jam with them as they openly grooved for what seemed like entire episodes? I always used to scoff at those, thinking of Cliff as some wannabe, someone who talked the talk but never walked the walk. It was easy to make fun of - the childlike gleam in his eye, the constant elbow-prodding of Clair as the band played, that big grin fixed on his face.

But the reality couldn't be more different, and in light of recent musical discoveries, those opinions of the Cos have well and truly been shattered.

What did I find? A series of random Bill Cosby musical albums, apparently so forgotten about and lost to the passage of time that virtually no web biographies about him care to mention them. I realize they're hardly close to forming the pinnacle of his legacy, but they're worth talking about nonetheless.

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First up in the list, his second musical vocal album, Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band. It is quite comic in its approach, thanks to some rather off-kilted, syncopated singing [not to mention a few songs that have an air of goofiness about them that extend them beyond the realm of respectability]. Of course I picked a couple of those tracks here, as well as a couple of songs that are approached with less brio and more respect.

Ably backed by the Watts 103rd Street Band [everyone knows of their high calibre], Cosby barges through several covers that span many genres. His Beatles cover is filled with typical Cosby-esque squeaking and shouting, as he over-excitedly shoves through the verses and leaves the chorus mop-up work to the Watts' female backing corps. "Reach Out" is again full of the gusto of the original, although with Cosby's distinctive nasal howl. The band is tight, which comes as no surprise, and Bill shouts the lyrics with soul and energy.

"Funky North Philadelphia", which was released as a single in '68 with under the title "Funky North Philly", is a jovial cover of the Dyke & The Blazers classic "Funky Broadway", where Cosby takes a back seat to the Watts Band and riffs a little on the lyrics. The final selection from this album, is by far the funkiest, and Cosby's singing is perfect for the song. Groovy, bright, and sassy funk from the Cos.

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Next up, a cut from the original Cosby Show jam sessions in 1969. Bill Cosby's original sitcom was hitting the airwaves around that time, and Cosby enlisted a rather excellent group to jam and put together music for the show. Quincy Jones took the reins, directing the group, with bass genius Ray Brown acting as band leader on virtually everything that made it to tape.

The group, in case you were wondering?

A rotating posse that included: Joe Sample on the Rhodes, Les McCann, Monty Alexander on pianos, Paul Humphries and John Guerin on skins, Milt Jackson on vibes, and saxophonists Eddie Harris and Ernie Watts. Jimmy Smith makes a brief appearance, as does the in-demand violinist of the day Jean-Luc Ponty [known more for his fusion work with the Mahavishnu Orchestra and his time served in Zappa's touring groups of the 70s].

Certainly, no-one can say that the Cos doesn't pull in the pedigree players to work magic with.

As is stands, little of the sessions actively involved Cosby himself, this vocal improv jam being the only one that was recorded during the sessions. Sure, it's playful, it's weird, but it definitely shows that Bill's interest in music extended into action and not just viewing from the sidelines.

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Perhaps the best evidence of his involvement in music comes with the final cut from today's Cos-happy buffet, the A-side from his rare deep jazz album Bill Cosby Presents Badfoot Brown and the Bunions Bradford Funeral & Marching Band. Here, the Cos handles not only composition credit but he holds down the keys throughout the 2-track album. This track was Cosby's touching, heartfelt ode to the death of Martin Luther King, something he elaborates on at length in the LP's liner notes.

The groove establishes from the get-go, becoming larger, louder, and more cacophonous before shifting through several momentum changes. The deep, plaintive bass line anchors the mix, evoking thoughts of people crying, the sadness of the occasion echoed in every note of the riff.

Heavy with mood and feeling, several instruments take turns in dominating the mix with little solos here and there, but make no mistake: here, Cosby is in charge, and he flirts in out of the spotlight accordingly. The B-side is a 20-minute funky jam titled "Hybish, Shybish", which is good and worthy listening in its own right, but it's "Martin's Funeral" that demands the attention.

Listen for the drum break that kicks in around [4:23], reminding me of the slow N'awlins funeral marches through the streets, where yr pinned by the bass drum and toms that tick-tock in rigid lockstep. The group go through several iterations of the main organ riff, closing the song with Cosby's pianos fading out as the track runs down.

The production is spacey and full of reverb, loose enough to let the music breathe but not so loose that all definition is lost.

It's also worth noting that this track was sampled by ATCQ on their track "We Can Get Down" [if anyone has an mp3 of that, email it my way and I'll throw it up for comparison], showing further that Cosby was not just a funny man in a sweater and corduroys.

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And so concludes a little tour through Bill Cosby's musical work. Whenever those music episodes of The Cosby Show come on TV Land again, I won't poke fun anymore.