The Cookers Hit the RoadThe Cookers are going back on tour in September performing at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the New Mexico Jazz Festival, the Houston Jazz Festival and the Montclair Jazz Festival. We also makes stops at The Nash in Phoenix, AR and the Jazz Bakery Moveable Feast at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles, CA. In the coming months, we will also be making stops in Clinton, NY, Rehoboth Beach, DE, Portsmouth, NH and Ann Arbor, MI. More details to follow in subsequent newsletters.

David Weiss Sextet on the West Coast

I’m going to be doing a couple of concerts on the West Coast with some of the finest musicians in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. I’ll be at The Paramount as part of the Just Jazz concert series in Los Angeles on Wednesday, September 28 and at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, October 1.

The Cookers on the Cover of the January Issue of
Down Beat Magazine

After almost 15 years together and six critically acclaimed albums, The Cookers finally get their fist feature in a major Jazz magazine and it’s the cover. Thanks to Down Beat Magazine for the coverage and support. You can read the article here

Accolades for « Look Out » 

There has been a lot of great reviews of our recent release « Look Out »
Here are some of the highlights….

“The Cookers, a group of luminaries mostly now in their 70s and 80s, have managed to retain the rough-and-tumble spirit of their old work, while accepting the laurels that have rightfully come to them. On their new album, ‘Look Out,’ a bristling collection of originals, the old feeling is newly alive.”
–       Giovanni Russonello, New York Times

“Fierce… If you’re looking for a take-no-prisoners approach to improvisation performed by living masters of our music, then look no further than The Cookers… Could rival any superhero squad for extraordinary powers, esprit de corps, and a burning sense of purpose. The all-star group.”
–       Nate Chinen, WBGO.org

“Forward-leaning post-bop veterans… Packed with swinging rhythms, trenchant melodies and soulful soloes, hard-edged originals.”
–       Andy Cowan, MOJO Magazine

“One of the hardest working groups in contemporary jazz… originals that plug effortlessly into the spirit and lexicon of those milestones… The fact that all of this comes across as a living music, and more than a mere exercise in nostalgia, speaks volumes about The Cookers’ considerable chops as both composers and performers of bona fide deep jazz.”
–       Daniel Spicer, The Wire

“Post-bop goodness… a veritable supergroup of jazz heavyweights.”
–       Matt Micucci, Jazziz

“Mostly incendiary performances… the Cookers can still deliver.”
–       Perry Tannenbaum, Jazz Times

And in case you missed it…..
Gearbox Records is pleased to announce the release of The Cookers 6th album « Look Out », their first album in 5 years.
Look Out! will be released on London tastemaker label and analogue specialists, Gearbox Records on September 24, 2021 on CD, LP, and in digital formats.

Billy Harper, Cecil McBee, George Cables, Eddie Henderson, and Billy Hart all came up in the heady era of the mid ‘60s. It was a period that found the dimensions of hard bop morphing from their original designs, and each of these guys helped facilitate the process as members of some of the most important bands of the era. Hart and Henderson were members of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi group; Cecil McBee anchored Charles Lloyd’s great ’60s quartet alongside Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette; Billy Harper was part of Lee Morgan’s last group, as well as being a member of Max Roach’s Quartet and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers; while George Cables held down the piano chair in numerous bands including groups led by Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Dexter Gordon and Art Pepper. NEA Jazz Master-to-be Hart also accompanied Stan Getz and Charles Lloyd.

David Weiss and Donald Harrison, from a more recent generation and the youngest members of the band, are experts in this forthright lingo, with the former having gained experience performing with Freddie Hubbard and Charles Tolliver. Set for his own NEA Jazz Master status next year, Harrison, born and raised in New Orleans, LA, has performed with Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Notorious BIG, Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Esperanza Spalding, Dr. John, and Herbie Hancock.

Recorded at legendary engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s studio at Englewood Cliffs, NJ, the new vinyl will have each of the members signatures inscribed into side D, and also features liner notes by award-winning music critic Kevin Le Gendre.

Whereas the majority of the jazz tradition’s elder statesmen head their own groups, this is one of the few jazz bands to contain legacy musicians of this calibre functioning as an equitable, long-standing ensemble. Every chorus, every unison statement, every solo, every moment of call and response, vividly reflects the immense talent of the musicians, and, perhaps most significantly, the cohesion of their personalities. This exciting all-star septet summons up an aggressive mid ‘60s spirit with a potent collection of expansive post-bop originals marked by all the requisite killer instincts and pyrotechnic playing expected of some of the heaviest hitters on the scene today.

Each of the members of The Cookers are leaders in their own right and have recorded for touchstone labels such as Strata-East, Contemporary and India Navigation. Once carried by history The Cookers have become carriers of history. But it’s the unmistakable power of teamwork that makes this music so commanding and resonates with a kind of depth and beauty that speaks of the seasoned track record of its principals (combined, the group has over 250 years of experience in the jazz world and has been recorded on over 1,000 recordings).

Look Out!, which is the band’s sixth album since its 2010 debut Warriors, marks an unstoppable march forward. The seven pieces on offer highlight the ability of each bandmember-composer to create themes that are worthy of reinvestigation, a major aspect of the jazz aesthetic.

The lead single “Somalia” is a superlative Billy Harper number from the early ‘90s that is a prime examples of a personal thematic language that is deeply rooted in black sacred music traditions but also conjoined to a variety of other vocabularies, above all the propulsion of African grooves and chants. Harper has a gift for majestic lyricism that he sculpts with a steely, piercing tone and ecstatic phrasing that has made him among the most distinctive of post-Coltrane players heard in the past 5 decades.

Elsewhere on the record, titles by bassist Cecil McBee (“Mutima,” “Cat’s Out Of The Bag”) and pianist George Cables (“Traveling Lady,” “The Mystery Of Monifa Brown,” “AKA Reggie”) underline the strength of the composers in the band.

After fourteen years together, again the incredibly high level of musicianship has only increased with the revisiting of their fresh, challenging, boundary-pushing music from these legendary, revered, veteran improvisers who have headlined stages at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, and the Playboy Jazz Festival.

You can buy the record here.