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Laurence Cook
Laurence Cook studied painting at the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston and later learned to play piano, vibraphone, and drums. He has been a major figure in the jazz avant-garde since the 1960's on twenty-two recordings, including Revenge, and Dual Unity with Paul Bley; Skillfullnes with Alan Silva,Wraparound with Joe Morris; "Fuzzagainst Junk" from Vision 1997 Festival with Thurston Moore; Triplet and Fire in the Valley with Jemeel Moondoc; Divine Mad Love with Sabir Mateen; November 1981, Thoughts, and Son of Sisyphus with Bill Dixon. He has worked with Sam Rivers, Lowell Davidson, Rahn Burton,Alan Silva, The Brecker Brothers, Robin Kenyatta, Mark Whitecage, and Barre Phillips among many others.
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Cook / Coursil / Gale / Robinson / Tintweiss: Ave B Free Jam
by Richard J Salvucci
A small story to motivate this review. Once upon a time, there was a scholar in a field of the humanities who wrote quite obscurely, even for the humanities, although his prose did not approach the glories of the postmodern. Most agreed that his writing was incomprehensible. It was sesquipedalian, if not totally obscure. In his defense, some would say that, ah, it is a case of poor translation into English, which is not his native language. But then it ...
read moreLaurence Cook: Tragedies of Love
by Stanley Jason Zappa
Laurence CookTragedies of LoveBlaq Lghtn2011 It is hard to think of a time when tedium was as pervasive in music as it is today. If listening to music hasn't become a chore, it has become the sound track to doing chores--part of the torture of our jobs rather than a relief or refuge from them. Contemporary commodity music holds the same station as the knock-knock joke. There comes a time in all ...
read moreLaurence Cook and Jim Hobbs Conjure "Tragedies of Love" on Blaq Lghtn Records
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Chris Rich
Blaq Lghtn recently released its third disc, Tragedies of Love, a duet involving the elder statesman of Boston drummers, Laurence Cook with the mayor of Boston music, Jim Hobbs and his beloved alto saxophone. It is a work laden with the reflections one might expect in the William Blake form of Experience. If anything, both epitomize Blake's notion of 'the prolific.' From Joslyn Layne at All Music, we have this succinct and useful summary for the drummer. Drummer Laurence Cook ...
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Laurence Cook and Eric Zinman Show Musical Vision in "Double Action" Duet CD
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Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
New-England based avant jazzmen Laurence Cook and Eric Zinman each have an impressive track record in improvisatory music. Laurence has played drums and percussion in a number of important ensembles over the years; Eric Zinman's pianism has been a central part of significant live and recorded dates. For all that, one might nonetheless be unprepared for what happened when the two began working on a series of duets in 2009. The fruits of that collaboration can be heard on Double ...
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Laurence Cook and Eric Zinman - Double Action (Ayler, 2011) ****a1/2
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Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels
By Stanley Zappa Laurence Cook is a national treasure. Why the cultural machinery would rather embrace bourgeois twaddle rather than reward Laurence Cook with a Guggenheim grant or Macarthur award or the key to the city of Cambridge is one of the more egregious betrayals of our modern day. Cook took the drum seat after Milford Graves in the Lowell Davidson Trio. Cook was also Bill Dixon's drummer following Freddy Waits and preceding Tony Oxleyright smack dab in the middle ...
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3/3/01 concert in Boston with Daniel Carter/Laurence Cook/Peter Kowald/Jonathan LaMaster Quartet
Source:
All About Jazz
What distinguishes this from some of the many other releases out there of this sort is the specially sensitive drumming of Cook, a man who has spent years playing in and out of time, who is so familiar with his drum set up and the sounds he can coax out of it that he provides a reasoned virtuosity, a vertiable rainbow of sound colors.
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Banishment
From: Tragedies of LoveBy Laurence Cook