While working on my story "The timeless songs of ‘The Sound of Music’" I started thinking about all the great covers and contemporary songs featuring samples from the classic musical.
Cosby’s spot-on comic timing has always reminded me of a jazz musician’s. Like Coltrane or Miles Davis, he understood early in his career that the pauses are just as important as what you actually say -- or in the case of a musician, play. I share this with Cosby and he runs with it.
“Listen to John Coltrane enough and after two bars, just two bars at any place, and you know that’s him,” Cosby says. “We all have signature things that happen to be similar that you can predict and you try to stay away from that except the rhythms: those pauses, they’re part of my signature, the part where I know when I say nothing, I already painted enough, led enough and I don’t even have to say anything.
“But those pauses don’t belong to me,” Cosby quickly adds as a matter of record. “Jack Benny was one of the first guys in comedy to make the anticipation so great that during the pause people start to laugh before the execution.”
I've done some interesting interviews over the years.
But few, if any, beat the 90-minute one I did this morning with Bill Cosby, or, as I called him, "Mr. Cosby."
We talked about his days doing comedy in the Greenwich Village of the 1960s, "The Cosby Show" and the twisted mentality behind people who create celebrity death hoaxes such as the ones Mr. Cosby has endured.
Mr. Cosby asked my age, marital status and offered smart life lessons.
We agreed on the poignancy of a certain New Testament passage.
But what really got us going —especially Mr. Cosby — was jazz.
Turned out we're both enthusiasts of contemporary great Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, St. Pete-based piano ace Kenny Drew Jr.and countless classic artists such as Miles Davis,Oscar Peterson and John Coltrane.
We talked a lot about Coltrane. At one point, Mr. Cosby and I grappled with an album title. He gave me ample clues but I couldn't nail it. Opportunity lost, I thought.
The interview ended without either of us being able to recall that certain Coltrane record.
About five minutes went by. I talked to a reporter seated near me about the interview. Prepared to work on another story.
Then our metro editor yelled from across the newsroom:
"Hey, Wade, Bill Cosby's on the phone, what's your extension?"
Mr. Cosby had remembered the Coltrane album title: "Ascension."
After several minutes of searching — "No you look there, I'm looking here" — Mr. Cosby played me a portion of the title track, which clocks in at 27:39, while expertly remarking on the musicianship.
We talked some more. I thanked him for his time — sounding perhaps a bit too grateful. Mr. Cosby made a kind joke and said goodbye.
Buzz Worthy is a forum for Bradenton Herald features writer/columnist Marty Clear to share his thoughts on the Bradenton-Sarasota arts, theater and music scene as well as the national entertainment scene, including television and movies. He welcomes feedback on all these topics.
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