Legendary jazz group, the Cookers, will perform Monday, Feb. 2, at the Hamilton Studio Listening Room.
“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,” a release from Imagine Jazz says. “Eddie Henderson, Cecil McBee, George Cables 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; 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, the release said.
David Weiss and Donald Harrison, from a more recent generation and the youngest members of the band, are experts in this forthright lingo, the release said, having gained experience performing with Art Blakey, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Tolliver, 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,” the release wrote. “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 a part of over 1,000 recordings).”
The Cookers are the first in a line-up of five artists presented by Imagine Jazz in the top half of 2026 including vocalist Kate Reid from University of Miami, instrumentalist from New York Caroline Davis and ECM artist Ralph Alessi.
Imagine Jazz is a nonprofit founded in 2018 by Rachel Bade-McMurphy. Presentations have been made possible through painstaking diligence and grant funding by Spokane Arts, Innovia, Wa Arts, Creative West, Arts Fund and Chamber Music America.
For more information, contact Rachel Bade-McMurphy at rachel@imaginejazz.org or (509) 936-0819.