Robert Henry Timmons (December 19, 1935 – March 1, 1974) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He was a sideman in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for two periods (July 1958 to September 1959; February 1960 to June 1961), between which he was part of Cannonball Adderley's band. Several of Timmons' compositions written when part of these bands – including "Moanin'", "Dat Dere", and "This Here" – enjoyed commercial success and brought him more attention. In the early and mid-1960s he led a series of piano trios that toured and recorded extensively.
Timmons was strongly associated with the soul jazz style that he helped initiate. This link to apparently simple writing and playing, coupled with drug and alcohol addiction, led to a decline in his career. Timmons died, aged 38, from cirrhosis. Several critics have commented that his contribution to jazz remains undervalued.
Early life
Timmons was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of a minister. He had a sister, Eleanor. Both of his parents, and several aunts and uncles, played the piano. Timmons first played at the church where his grandfather was minister; this influenced his later jazz playing.), Sonny Stitt in 1957, and Maynard Ferguson in 1957–58. Hank Mobley, and Morgan. all for Blue Note Records in 1957.
Timmons became best known as a member of Art Blakey's band the Jazz Messengers, which he was first part of from July 1958 to September 1959, including for a tour of Europe. From around the time he joined Blakey, Timmons, along with some of his fellow band members, was a heroin user. "This Here" (sometimes "Dis Here") was a surprise commercial success for Adderley: recorded in concert in 1959, it was released as part of The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco album while the band was still on tour, and they discovered its popularity only when they arrived back in New York and found crowds outside the Village Gate, where they were due to play.
Timmons was reported to be dissatisfied with the money he had received from "This Here", and was enticed in February 1960 into leaving Adderley and returning to Blakey's band by the offer of more pay.
Summer 1961 to 1974
Timmons left Blakey for the second time in June 1961, They toured around the US, including the West Coast, but played most in and around New York. According to Tootie Heath, Timmons was at the peak of his fame at that point, but was addicted to heroin, and used a lot of the money that the band was paid maintaining his habit.
In 1963, Timmons' playing, with Lewis Powers on bass and Roy McCurdy on drums, was described by a Washington Post reviewer as "flexible and adventuresome [...] Glossing over everything is an undeniable sheen of church music and spirituals." In 1965, the same reviewer commented that Timmons was employing musicians who were of much lower ability: "Timmons lacks a certain passion but I wonder if this is not the fault of his sidemen." Timmons started playing vibes in the mid-1960s. He occasionally played organ, but recorded only one track on that instrument – a 1964 version of "Moanin on From the Bottom. Timmons' album Got to Get It! featured him as part of a nonet, playing arrangements by Tom McIntosh. and alcoholism, and partly as a result of being typecast as a composer and player of seemingly simple pieces of music. with Dexter Gordon on one of the saxophonist's temporary returns to the US from Europe, and in a trio backing vocalist Etta Jones. Timmons continued to play in the early 1970s, mostly in small groups or in combination with other pianists, and mainly in the New York area.
According to saxophonist Jimmy Heath, Timmons joined Clark Terry's big band for a tour of Europe in 1974. He was unwell and drank on the plane to Sweden, and fell while drinking at the bar before the band's first concert, in Malmö. He had been in hospital for a month. and was survived by his wife, Estelle, and son, also Bobby. His use of them was more aggressive, and less melodic, than that of Red Garland. In the opinion of Scott Yanow, stylistically, "somehow Bobby Timmons never grew beyond where he was in 1960." Gary Giddins, however, highlighted other facets of Timmons' playing: the "lush [[Bud Powell|[Bud] Powell]]-inspired ballads, his clear, sharp, unsentimental long lines." Timmons is often mentioned as being under-rated; jazz writer Marc Myers commented in 2008 that "today, Timmons' contribution to jazz – as an accompanist, writer, leader and innovator of a new sound – is vastly overlooked and undervalued."
Compositions
Timmons wrote "a steady stream of infectious funky tunes", stated Giddins. He suggested that his method of composing a new song might involve "whistling, playing around with the notes, or at a club. I'll tell one musician to play this note, another that note, and we kick it around."
Personality
Tootie Heath reported that, when they were on tour and Timmons was addicted to heroin, Timmons would routinely lie and sometimes pull out a knife to threaten people. In Golson's words, Timmons "had no ego about him, [...] He was always upbeat, never downbeat, and he never maligned anybody unless it was in a humorous way".
|-
|1964
|Little Barefoot Soul
|Prestige
|Trio, with Sam Jones (bass), Ray Lucas (drums)
|-
|1964
|Holiday Soul
|Prestige
|Trio, with Butch Warren (bass), Walter Perkins (drums)
|-
|1964
|Chun-King
|Prestige
|Trio, with Keter Betts (bass), Albert Heath (drums)
|-
|1964
|Workin' Out!
|Prestige
|Quartet, with Johnny Lytle (vibes), Keter Betts (bass), William Hinnant (drums); one track is trio, with Sam Jones (bass), Ray Lucas (drums)
|-
|1965
|Chicken & Dumplin's
|Prestige
|Timmons plays vibes on two tracks. Trio, with Mickey Bass (bass), Billy Saunders (drums)
|-
|1966
|The Soul Man!
|Prestige
|Quartet, with Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Ron Carter (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums)
|-
|1966
|Soul Food
|Prestige
|Trio, with Mickey Bass (bass), Billy Higgins (drums)
|-
|1967
|Got to Get It!
|Milestone
|Nonet, with Joe Farrell and James Moody (flute, tenor sax), Hubert Laws (flute), George Barrow (baritone sax), Jimmy Owens (trumpet, flugelhorn), Eric Gale and Howard Collins (guitar; separately), Ron Carter (bass), Billy Higgins and Jimmy Cobb (drums; separately); four tracks are quartet, with Joe Beck (guitar), Carter, Cobb
|-
|1968
|Do You Know the Way?
|Milestone
|Quartet, with Joe Beck (guitar), Bob Cranshaw (electric bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums); 3 tracks are trio, without Beck
|}
As sideman
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Year recorded
!Leader
!Title
!Label
|-
|1958
|
|10 to 4 at the 5 Spot
|Riverside
|-
|1959
|
|The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco
|Riverside
|-
|1960
|
|Them Dirty Blues
|Riverside
|-
|1960
|
|Work Song
|Riverside
|-
|1960
|
|Blue Jubilee
|Jazzland
|-
|1956
|
|Chet Baker Quintette
|Crown
|-
|1956
|
|Chet Baker & Crew
|Pacific
|-
|1956
|
|Chet Baker Big Band
|Pacific
|-
|1958
|
|Moanin
|Blue Note
|-
|1958
|
|Drums Around the Corner
|Blue Note
|-
|1958
|
|1958 – Paris Olympia
|Fontana
|-
|1958
|
|Des femmes disparaissent (Soundtrack)
|Fontana
|-
|1958
|
|Au Club St. Germain, Vol. 1
|RCA
|-
|1958
|
|Au Club St. Germain, Vol. 2
|RCA
|-
|1958
|
|Au Club St. Germain, Vol. 3
|RCA
|-
|1959
|
|At the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 1
|Blue Note
|-
|1959
|
|At the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 2
|Blue Note
|-
|1959
|
|Just Coolin
|Blue Note
|-
|1959
|
|Les liaisons dangereuses 1960 (Soundtrack)
|Fontana
|-
|1960
|
|The Big Beat
|Blue Note
|-
|1960
|
|Like Someone in Love
|Blue Note
|-
|1960
|
|A Night in Tunisia
|Blue Note
|-
|1960
|
|Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 1
|Blue Note
|-
|1960
|
|Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World, Vol. 2
|Blue Note
|-
|1961
|
|Tokyo 1961
|Somethin' Else
|-
|1961
|
|Pisces
|Blue Note
|-
|1961
|
|The Witch Doctor
|Blue Note
|-
|1961
|
|The Freedom Rider
|Blue Note
|-
|1961
|
|Roots & Herbs
|Blue Note
|-
|1961
|
|Art Blakey!!!!! Jazz Messengers!!!!!
|Impulse!
|-
|1958
|
|Blue Lights, Vol. 1
|Blue Note
|-
|1958
|
|Blue Lights, Vol. 2
|Blue Note
|-
|1959
|
|On View at the Five Spot Cafe
|Blue Note
|-
|1960
|
|More Party Time
|Prestige
|-
|1960
|
|Movin' Right Along
|Prestige
|-
|1956
|
|Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia
|Blue Note
|-
|1956
|
|Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 2
|Blue Note
|-
|1956
|
|Round About Midnight at the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 3
|Blue Note
|-
|1962
|
|Matador
|United Artists
|-
|1959
|
|Brass Shout
|United Artists
|-
|1957
|
|Boy with Lots of Brass
|EmArcy
|-
|1957
|
|The Opener
|Blue Note
|-
|1958
|
|Benny Golson and the Philadelphians
|Blue Note
|-
|1969
|
|L.T.D.: Live at the Left Bank
|Prestige
|-
|1969
|
|XXL
|Prestige
|-
|1960
|
|The Big Soul-Band
|Riverside
|-
|1960
|
|The Soul Society
|Riverside
|-
|1960s
|
|Live at Leo's Casino
|Collectables
|-
|1962
|
|Nice and Easy
|Jazzland
|-
|1957
|
|Hank
|Blue Note
|-
|1955
|
|Frank Morgan<small> (On unissued tracks available on 1991 edition CD)</small>
|Gene Norman Presents
|-
|1957
|
|The Cooker
|Blue Note
|-
|1960
|
|Lee-Way
|Blue Note
|-
|1958-59
|
|Jazz for Young Moderns (And Old Buzzards Too) <small>(reissued as Earth Dance)</small>
|Bethlehem <small>(Fresh Sound)</small>
|-
|1960
|
|Comin' On!
|Blue Note
|-
|1961
|
|A Jazz Version of Kean
|Riverside
|-
|1957
|
|Personal Appearance
|Verve
|-
|1960
|
|The Young Lions
|Vee-Jay
|}
Sources:
Notes
References
External links
- Timmons at AllMusic
- Timmons at jazzgiants.net