David Weiss / The Cookers
New York City, NY
Grant amount: $15,000
Performances
Aretha's Jazz Cafe at Music Hall. Detroit, MI. 9/19/2021
Jazz Alley. Seattle, WA. 9/21/2021
Bach Dynamite and Dancing. Half Moon Bay, CA. 9/26/2021
About the Artist
The Cookers bring years of experience to the bandstand and to their five critically acclaimed recordings, Warriors, Cast the First Stone, Believe, Time and Time Again (which was the iTunes Jazz CD of the year in 2014) and The Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart. 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.
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 artists 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 and Dexter Gordon.
David Weiss and Donald Harrison, from a more recent generation are experts in this forthright lingo, having gained experience performing with Art Blakey, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes and Herbie Hancock.
Each member of the Cookers has spent time leading his own series of groups as well, and each has a keenly individual sound. 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 The Cookers, who “embody the serious-as-death commitment that it took to thrive on the New York scene some five decades ago” (Boston Globe), recently released their fifth album, The Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart which shows the incredibly high level of musicianship has only increased with the latest offering of fresh, challenging, boundary-pushing music from these legendary, revered, veteran improvisers.