Henry Cook

"Few bands match the intuitive interplay of Cook’s group as they travel through tight, swinging Post Bop and Avant Garde Jazz with reckless abandon" www.real.com

After studying with Joe Viola at the Berklee college of music in the early eighties, he began his career in Boston playing with the Billy Skinner Double Jazz Quartet. The band worked together for almost ten years, performing regularly at the legendary Wally’s Cafe, and playing festivals throughout the Northeast, as well as England and Northern Ireland. They recorded a CD, "Kosen Rufu" which was a hit on jazz radio, and garnered great reviews in the major jazz magazines.

In 1991 Cook formed his own band with Bobby Ward, the legendary Boston drummer. The band was featured at many festivals in the New York-New England area. Their 1994 Cd "Dimensional Odyssey" won the Boston Music Award for "best indie jazz record", and was a critical success, earning four stars in Downbeat magazine. In 1994 Cook was invited to the Cork Jazz Festival in Ireland as a guest soloist, where he played with a number of rising European stars. In 1996 the band did a tour in Mexico, including performances at the San Miguel de Allende Jazz Festival.
During this same period, Cook was one of the mainstays of his friend Salim Washington’s Roxbury Blues Aesthetic, performing weekly at the historic Connolly’s for a number of years. This band played many important venues, including a regular concert series at the Institute of Contemporary Art. The band also performed and held clinics at area colleges and universities.
In 2001 Cook joined the Either/Orchestra, winner of over a dozen "rising star" polls in Downbeat magazine. They toured throughout the United States, and in 2004 traveled to Ethiopia to play and record at the Ethiopian International Music Festival. The concert was recorded and released on the Buda label as "Ethiopiques 20". In Addis, Cook met a number of local musicians, and took some lessons on the Ethiopian flute, the Washint. This was the beginning of an intense personal journey of discovery. When he returned to Boston, he began to make his own Washints, and has since done in-depth reaserch into building and playing Washints. In February 2008 he met the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke. After maestro Astatke heard Cook playing the Washint, he asked him to join him in the studio for his new recording.

Cook’s musical associations include Famoudou Don Moye, John Tchicai, "Ku-umba" Frank Lacy, Cecil Brooks, Howard Johnson, Steve Neil, Joe Bonner, Donald Smith and Mark Johnson among others, each of whom has played on some of jazz’ most important recordings.

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Henry Cook / Frank Lacy Quintet with special guest Famoudou Don Moye playing "Bellina" at the Zola Wine and Jazz Festival, June 30 2007

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Cook has played in major festivals around the world, including:

Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival – Detroit USA

Cork Jazz Festival, Cork, Ireland

DuMaurier Jazz Festival, Toronto, Canada

European Jazz Expo, Cagliari, Italy

Festival Internacional de San Miguel De Allende, Mexico

Ethiopian Music Festival – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Kampala Festival of the Arts - Kampala, Uganda

Discovery Jazz Festival, Vermont, USA

Boston Globe Jazz Festival - Boston, USA

International Assoc. of Jazz Educators Conference, San Diego USA

In addition to performing, Henry has been teaching jazz, flute, and saxophone for over twenty years. He has given music clinics across the United States, in Europe and Africa.