Seven musicians, six albums, over 1000 recordings, and more than 250 years of combined experience in the jazz world: The Cookers’ stats are simply staggering. The band members gained extensive stage experience with icons such as Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock and Max Roach, so no doubt audiences would go home equally satisfied if they filled their show with just anecdotes. This supergroup is not on stage for a nostalgia trip though: they keep the free jazz spirit alive by stimulating each other in what are mostly their own expressive compositions. They exude the cool of the post-bop climate of the 1960s, the era in which Henderson, McBee, Cables and Hart emerged. Weiss, Harrison and Lawrence represent a later generation, but did work with greats such as Art Blakey, Bobby Hutcherson and Freddie Hubbard. The band was named after Hubbard's classic Night Of The Cookers Vol. 1 & 2 (1965/66). Rightly so, because their fiery shows never fail to reach boiling point night after night.
