 |
Carla Cook | |
|---|---|
 Cook at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, New York City, 2011 | |
| Background information | |
| Genres | Vocal jazz |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Labels | Maxjazz |
|
Carla Cook | |
|---|---|
| Cook at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, New York City, 2011 | |
| Background information | |
| Genres | Vocal jazz |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Labels | Maxjazz |
Cook was drawn to a life of music at an early age. As a student at Cass Technical High School she played string bass in the school orchestra, studied piano and voice on weekends, and sang in her church's choir. An elder brother introduced her to jazz, Cook chose voice as her instrument of choice, and she became a disciple of jazz icon Eddie Jefferson, founder of a singing technique called "vocalese" where a singer sings lyrics to a famous instrumental solo.
During this time she and close friend Regina Carter formed dreams of becoming jazz musicians; Cook as a singer, and Carter as a violinist. At Carter's urging she applied to and was accepted by Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. While at Northeastern she remained in close contact with Carter (who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music and met Cyrus Chestnut, a jazz pianist studying at nearby Berklee School of Music. After graduating from Northeastern in 1985 Cook remained in Boston preparing herself for a career singing jazz in New York.
In February 1990 she moved to New York and supported herself as a school teacher and book seller during the day, and singing at night. After five years she traveled to Europe and from 1993 to 1994 Cook served as a guest vocal and ensemble instructor at the Jazzschule in Basel, Switzerland, and Jazz and Rock Schule in Freiburg, Germany. She returned to New York two years later and her work included singing with Lionel Hampton's Orchestra and George Gee's Make Believe Ballroom Orchestra. In 1998 she signed with MaxJazz, a fledgling music label, and that year she released her first CD, It's All About Love, to great acclaim, including a best jazz vocal Grammy nomination. Her second CD, Dem Bones (a tribute to all the trombone players she had worked with in the Lionel Hampton and George Gee groups), released in 2001, was also a success, and received a glowing review from Down Beat magazine, the leading jazz publication. In 2002 she released her CD Simply Natural, which was inspired by her love for the beauty found in nature. In 2011 her rendition of Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was featured on jazz percussionist Steve Kroon's CD Without A Doubt.
Cook performs globally both with her own groups, most notably "the Carla Cook Quintet", and as a guest soloist with artists including Eric Reed and old friends Regina Carter and Cyrus Chestnut (both of whom have become luminaries in the jazz world). Her eclectic venues include the digital realm as she performs as the character Teriyaki Yoko in the Sony PlayStation game Um Jammer Lammy , [2] and she has said that it is a dream of hers to appear with her favorite characters on Sesame Street .
Cook was the headliner at the 2018 Central Jazz Festival's September 16, 2018, show in Somerville, New Jersey. [3]
In her songbook, you’ll find elements of R&B, European classical, Motown, Blues, and Gospel.
- 1999 Grammy Awards Nominations
- All About Jazz
- Jazz Times
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996.
Dinah Washington was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She was also known as "Queen of the Jukeboxes". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Betty Carter was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative interpretation of lyrics and melodies. Vocalist Carmen McRae once remarked: "There's really only one jazz singer—only one: Betty Carter."
Madeleine Peyroux is an American jazz singer and songwriter who began her career as a teenager on the streets of Paris. She sang vintage jazz and blues songs before finding mainstream success in 2004 when her album Careless Love sold half a million copies.
Ella in Rome: The Birthday Concert is a live album by Ella Fitzgerald, with a jazz trio led by Lou Levy, and also featuring the Oscar Peterson trio. Recorded in 1958, it was released thirty years later.
Regina Carter is an American jazz violinist. She is the cousin of jazz saxophonist James Carter.
Ernestine Anderson was an American jazz and blues singer. In a career spanning more than six decades, she recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award. She sang at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival, as well as at jazz festivals all over the world. In the early 1990s she joined Qwest Records, the label founded by fellow Garfield High School graduate Quincy Jones.
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He has also written two operas and more than 80 film and television scores. Blanchard has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Original Score for BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Da 5 Bloods, both directed by Spike Lee, a frequent collaborator.
Cyrus Chestnut is an American jazz pianist, composer and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for Time, wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space."
Ahnee Sharon Freeman is a jazz pianist, French horn player and arranger.
Russell Lamar Malone was an American jazz guitarist. He began working with Jimmy Smith in 1988 and went on to work with Harry Connick Jr. and Diana Krall throughout the 1990s.
Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Esperanza Spalding, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Miller and Lionel Loueke.
Tamara Diane Wimer, known professionally as Tamara Gee, is an American pop singer and songwriter. She grew up singing and performing from the age of 5, and was a professional vocalist by the time she was 12 years old, winning various singing competitions throughout her adolescence and adulthood, as well as a beauty pageant. Gee opened for vocalist Tony Bennett and his orchestra after being the featured vocalist on various albums throughout her teen years. She released her debut album Hidden Treasure with Universal Music in 2007, while living in Poland. Her single from the album, "For Life", was voted unanimous winner of Piosenka dla Europy, the Polish final for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. Tamara and her song "For Life" was the first Polish entry in history to qualify out of a semifinal. A portion of Gee's Eurovision performance was shown on The Oprah Winfrey Show on "The World's Got Talent" episode with Simon Cowell where Gee sang with former participants Celine Dion and Julio Iglesias. In 2007 Gee co-wrote and performed "Fate" on DJ Schiller's album Sehnsucht. The album went triple platinum and was nominated for a Grammy. She released her solo EP Christmas Angel in 2009. On November 27, 2014, Tamara released a new highly anticipated album "Love, Tamara" of which she wrote with and was produced by Multi Grammy Award winning producer/songwriter Walter Afanasieff.
Mark Gross is an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop tradition. He studied at the Berklee College of Music, graduating in 1988, then worked in the band of Lionel Hampton and performed in Five Guys Named Moe on Broadway. He has since worked with a variety of other artists, including the bands of Delfeayo Marsalis, Nat Adderley and the Dave Holland Big Band. Gross first recorded as a solo act with 1997's Preach Daddy, followed in 2000 by The Riddle of the Sphinx, in 2013 with "Blackside", Mark Gross + Strings (2018) and The Gospel According to Mark: A Jazz Suite (2025).
Steve Wilson is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, who is best known in the musical community as a flutist and an alto and soprano saxophonist. He also plays the clarinet and the piccolo. Wilson performs on many different instruments and has performed and recorded on over twenty-five albums. His interests include folk, jazz, classical, world music, and experimental music. Wilson is currently on the faculty of New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. He was elected as an American Champion by the National Flute Association. Wilson has maintained a busy career working as a session musician, and has contributed to many musicians of note both in the recording studios, but as a sideman on tours. Over the years he has participated in engagements with several musical ensembles, as well as his own solo efforts.
Kenny Davis is an American jazz bassist.
Roseanna Elizabeth Vitro is a jazz singer and teacher from Arkansas.
Jamie Broumas is an American jazz singer, vocal instructor, and arts administrator. She lives outside of Washington D.C. and is the Director of The Fortas Chamber Music Concerts at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She is the Chief Artistic Officer of Music Academy of the West.
Cécile McLorin Salvant is a French-American jazz vocalist. Salvant is one of the most highly regarded jazz vocalists of her generation, often winning DownBeat annual critics polls. She has released seven albums since 2010, six of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards. She is a 3-time winner of the Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy Award for her 2015 album For One to Love, her 2017 album Dreams and Daggers, and her 2018 album The Window, each released on the Mack Avenue label. Salvant's most recent album is Mélusine, released in 2023 by Nonesuch Records. Salvant primarily sings in English or French, her first language, and has also recorded songs in Occitan and Haitian Kreyòl.
Thana Alexa Pavelić is an American jazz vocalist, composer, arranger, and producer.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
