Stanley Cowell

Stanley Cowell (born May 5, 1941) is an American jazz pianist and co-founder of the Strata-East Records label.

Cowell was born in Toledo, Ohio. He began playing the piano at around the age of four, "and first became interested in jazz after gaining exposure to the music of pianist Art Tatum, a family friend". "After high school, he attended both the Oberlin College Conservatory and the University of Michigan, during which time he also gained valuable experience playing with Rahsaan Roland Kirk". He moved to New York in the mid-1960s.

Cowell played with Marion Brown, Max Roach, Bobby Hutcherson, Clifford Jordan, Harold Land, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz.Cowell played with trumpeter Charles Moore and others in the Detroit Artist's Workshop Jazz Ensemble in 1965–66. During the late 1980s Cowell was part of a regular quartet led by J.J. Johnson. Cowell taught in the Music Department of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

As leader

As sideman

With Gary Bartz

• Another Earth (Milestone, 1969)

With Marion Brown

• Why Not? (1966)
• Three for Shepp (Impulse!, 1966)
• Vista (Impulse!, 1975)

With Larry Coryell

• Equipoise (Muse, 1985)
• Toku Do (Muse, 1987)

With Richard Davis

• Way Out West (Muse, 1977 [1980])
• Fancy Free (Galaxy)

With Sonny Fortune

• Long Before Our Mothers Cried (Strata-East, 1974)

With Roy Haynes

• Thank You Thank You (Galaxy, 1977)
• Vistalite (Galaxy, 1977 [1979])

With Jimmy Heath

• Love and Understanding (Muse, 1973)
• The Time and the Place (Landmark, 1974 [1994])

With The Heath Brothers

• Marchin' On (1975)
• Passing Thru (1978)
• In Motion (1979)
• Live at the Public Theater (1980)
• Expressions of Life (1980)
• Brotherly Love (1982)
• Brothers and Others (1984)

With Stan Getz

• The Song Is You (1969)

With Johnny Griffin

• Birds and Ballads (1978)

With Bobby Hutcherson

• Patterns (1968)
• Medina (1969)
• Now! (1969)

With J.J. Johnson

• Standards-Live At The Village Vanguard (1988)

With Clifford Jordan

• Glass Bead Games (1973)

With Oliver Nelson

• Swiss Suite (Flying Dutchman, 1971)

With Jimmy Owens

• Headin' Home (A&M/Horizon, 1978)

With Art Pepper

• Art Pepper Today (1978)
• Winter Moon (1980)
• One September Afternoon (1980)

With Max Roach

• Members, Don't Git Weary (Atlantic, 1968)

With Charles Sullivan

• Genesis (Strata-East, 1974)

With Buddy Terry

• Awareness (Mainstream, 1971)

With Charles Tolliver

• The Ringer (Polydor, 1969)
• Live at Slugs' (Strata-East, 1970)
• Music Inc. (Strata-East, 1971)
• Impact (Enja, 1972)
• Live in Tokyo (Strata-East, 1973)
• Impact (Strata-East, 1975)