Meet Jazz Pianist, Paducah Native, Jon Cowherd

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Credit www.joncowherd.com

Kate Lochte continues our series of interviews with young people of western Kentucky who are finding success “out there” in major markets.  This time we meet a co-founder of the Brian Blade Fellowship Band, Jon Cowherd.

Pianist Jon Cowherd is a member of jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson's band, and his instrumental work has graced albums by the likes of Rosanne Cash, Lizz Wright, Iggy Pop, Marc Cohn, Mark Olson and Victoria Williams. He tours with Ms. Wilson, Rosanne Cash and also his Fellowship Band, which he co-founded with percussionist /bandleader Brian Blade with whom he discovered musical brotherhood while both were students at Loyola University in New Orleans. 

Jon Cowherd is from Paducah, the son of musical parents who perform and teach music, Ron and Jan Cowherd.  We’re going to hear a composition titled Reconciliation off the Fellowship Band’s disc Perceptual, that Jon Cowherd dedicated to the rebuilding of the community and the reconciliation of all people.  The occasion inspiring his dedication was the shooting at Heath High School.  He was visiting Paducah on December 1, 1997, the day it happened.

You can hear more of Jon Cowherd’s music tonight (March 4) on George Eldred’s Café Jazz and also Wednesday night (March 6) with Brian Clardy’s Café Jazz.