* En anglais uniquement
This veteran jazz and theater drummer and bandleader's name often appears with an "a" rather than an "e" for the final vowel, no doubt an attempt to make it more closely resemble the name of his home state, Texas. After all, few emotions rival in intensity the pride Texans have for their historic musicians, even causing typesetters to lose their objectivity. Also known as Kat Cowens and of course Kat Cowans, he came out of a musical family which, at the dawn of the 20th century, included two drumming brothers, a sister who danced, and another who sang. Herbie Cowens worked in the streets of Dallas as a shoeshine boy and also danced for whatever jingling coins would be tossed at his feet, saving up enough of them to buy his first drum set according to legend. His first professional job was with a combo known as the Satisfied Five.
He moved to the town of Wichita Falls to join up with Frenchy's New Orleans Jazz Band, then went on to work with tuba huffer
Charlie Dixon and his band the Jazzlanders. Cowens quit this group to finish high school, however. In the early twenties, he was playing in theaters and working once again with the brothers Karl and Fred Murphy, the contented leaders behind the original Satisfied Five. The drummer went to New York City for the first time with Cleo Mitchell and a revue entitled Shake Your Feet, which in the case of New York City usually happens after someone steps on something unpleasant. After leaving this show in 1937, Cowens was associated with a series of historic outfits such as the Kansas City Blackbirds, Jimmie Cooper's Black & White Revue, and groups led by pianist
Eubie Blake. The drummer also fronted his own group.
Through the `30s, his career was an interesting combination of stints behind some of the best bandleaders and long-range theater jobs. In the '30,s Cowens banged around behind
Fats Waller, was replaced by Arnold Bowling, and moved on to a gig with violinist
Stuff Smith for nearly three years. Following a 1942 association in Philadelphia with
Garvin Bushell, Cowens walked the plank into the pit band for the Broadway show The Pirate, an engagement that went on nearly as long as the search for the treasure stash of Captain Kidd. During USO tours in 1943, the drummer once again led his own group, hitting military bases all over the world. He kept his own small groups together through the next several decades, as well as working with Louis Metcalfe in 1963. Cowens retired back to Dallas in the '70s after taking on a final tour of the Orient for the USO. ~ Eugene Chadbourne