Junior Cook Profile in Jazz Journal

[Dan Gould]

My youtube postings of recordings from Leonard Gaskin's Smithsonian archive led a saxophonist named Courtney Nero to reach out, specifically about photos and a recording of Cook with Cecil Payne and Ray Abrams, not that long before he died.  Nero has been researching a book on Cook and just shared with me that Jazz Journal published an article based on his forthcoming book. Check it out.

https://jazzjournal.co.uk/2023/07/15/junior-cook-quintessential-hard-bop-tenor/

 

[Jim Duckworth]

Thank you for posting this-it is right on time.

[jlhoots]

I forgot that Jazz Journal still exists.

[Rooster_Ties]

Very nice article, and I’m glad to see some mention of the similarities of Cook and Joe Henderson.

It’s frankly uncanny just how much Cook sounds like Joe sometimes — especially on a number of Blue Mitchel’s leader-dates for BN.

But he plays so well, usually, that he practically never comes off as a bad knockoff of Joe — at least in my estimation. Still, the resemblance is sometimes almost unnerving.

[JSngry]

There are those who will tell you the Joe sounded like Junior, not the other way around! 

[Rooster_Ties]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

There are those who will tell you the Joe sounded like Junior, not the other way around! 

What’s your take, Jim?

[JSngry]

Tonally, maybe Junior led the way. Phrasing, maybe the other way around.

You would to have been there in real time, though. I wasn't! 

[clifford_thornton]

Interesting article, thanks for posting. Learned quite a bit.

[david weiss]

On 7/15/2023 at 5:27 PM, JSngry said:

Tonally, maybe Junior led the way. Phrasing, maybe the other way around.

You would to have been there in real time, though. I wasn't! 

The story I've always heard is Joe got some stuff early on, some go as far as saying Joe was rooming with Junior for a while when he first got to NY. The consensus though is Junior first, then Joe. The greats always take everything from everyone and go from there. There is no argument that Joe ran with it in a way that few can touch. What I hear are the similarities in tone (though what I heard later  on was the Junior had a bigger sound) but I also hear a lot of the trills Joe did later coming from Junior though they are sped up quite a bit, Joe developed so much facility on the instrument. I got to play with Junior quite often when I first got to New York because I was hanging with Bill Hardman all the time and he bought me to all their gigs and let me sit in. When Junior caught fire though, it was unbelievable..... I remember a night at a dive bar in Brooklyn called Flamingo I think. We were playing Moments Notice and Junior went off. The place went nuts and Junior was just standing there taking it all in. Finally he started clapping too and said yeah, that was pretty good....

[Peter Friedman]

Nice story.

I heard Junior Cook/ Bill Hardman quintet with Walter Bishop,Jr, Paul Brown and Leroy Williams.

 at a club in NYC. Don't recall the name of the club.

But I do remember the music was fantastic. Especially Bill Hardman, Junior Cook, and Leroy Williams.

[AllenLowe]

not a big fan of Henderson - there is something emotionally incomplete about his playing to my ears, it's like something that looks good on paper, but in reality doesn't have enough impact - but that's just me, however I do find him interesting at times and I respect his playing - but more important since there was some discussion about his development as a player, above, is what he told Dave Schildkraut and which Dave told me. Henderson told Dave that as long as bebop was the prevailing style he didn't feel he had what it takes, was not comfortable as a player; and that it was Coltrane who freed him up to be himself, who showed him that he didn't have to play the way the beboppers played in order to to a real player.  I think this is quite illuminating and I, as a much lesser player, identify. One of the reasons I had to leave the Barry Harris orbit is that I just didn't fit into that system, much as I loved Barry personally and musically, and I finally realized there was a whole other way of musical life out there. Clearly this was what Henderson was talking about.

also, I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but I have always heard a stylistic resemblance between Cook and Booker Ervin. A sound, a certain hard dynamic.

[Dan Gould]

On 7/18/2023 at 8:23 PM, david weiss said:

The story I've always heard is Joe got some stuff early on, some go as far as saying Joe was rooming with Junior for a while when he first got to NY. The consensus though is Junior first, then Joe. The greats always take everything from everyone and go from there. There is no argument that Joe ran with it in a way that few can touch. What I hear are the similarities in tone (though what I heard later  on was the Junior had a bigger sound) but I also hear a lot of the trills Joe did later coming from Junior though they are sped up quite a bit, Joe developed so much facility on the instrument. I got to play with Junior quite often when I first got to New York because I was hanging with Bill Hardman all the time and he bought me to all their gigs and let me sit in. When Junior caught fire though, it was unbelievable..... I remember a night at a dive bar in Brooklyn called Flamingo I think. We were playing Moments Notice and Junior went off. The place went nuts and Junior was just standing there taking it all in. Finally he started clapping too and said yeah, that was pretty good....

The Flamingo Cafe is the location of nearly a dozen recordings of Percy France from the Leonard Gaskin Papers.  

[Niko]

thanks for posting that article, Dan! 

[Dan Gould]

@Niko My pleasure.

I am interested to see what he does in his book as he mentioned to me that he had about ten transcriptions done of Cook solos, but also realizes an 8X10 book wouldn't do justice to the transcriptions. He may publish them on a website and the book would be more about Cook. 

Here is the info he shared about his research:

I've been able to interview several cats who knew or worked with Cook, including pianists Mickey Tucker, Michael Weiss, David Hazeltine; drummer Joe Farnsworth; vocalist, bandmate, and roommate Timmy Shepherd; Bill Hardman's widow Roseline Hardman; Steeplechase founder Nils Winther; drum legend Louis Hayes; and several others.

So I think the book could be interesting as much for non-musicians as people who are interested in transcriptions.

[sgcim]

On 7/21/2023 at 6:16 AM, Dan Gould said:

The Flamingo Cafe is the location of nearly a dozen recordings of Percy France from the Leonard Gaskin Papers.  

Leonard Gaskin was a funny guy. I played with him in a band with his buddy Rudy Williams. They'd stop playing in the middle of a tune and start laughing their heads off talking about stuff from the past!