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Ken Cook

Jazz Piano

Ken Cook
Ken Cook

Contact

kencookmusic@gmail.com

Office

GMC 2045

Office Hours

Instruments: Jazz Piano

About

After completing a B.A. in Economics in the mid 80s and longing to find deeper musical connections, Californian native Ken Cook made his way to Boston to further his Jazz studies at the Berklee College of Music under a Chick Corea scholarship. He spent several years studying with the legendary Jazz instructors Charlie Banacos and Jerry Bergonzi followed by the completion of a Masters in Jazz Performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston, MA. Afterwards he embarked upon an eclectic career that included a lot of time lugging his Fender Rhodes and piano keyboards in and out of Jazz and Blues clubs, wedding halls, outdoor festivals, and endless basement session and recording studios. He traveled throughout New England and the Eastern seaboard playing music with nationally recognized Blues belter Michelle Willson and the Evil Gal Orchestra and toured Brazil, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the Caribbean with New Orleans Jazz and Blues icon Johnny Adams.

In 2007, after twenty-three years in Boston, Ken returned to the San Francisco Bay Area to embark on several new projects. In addition to his trio he can be found performing with Oakland based Blues vocalist the Terrie Odabi, Latin Jazz and Afro Cuban artist John Calloway, Brazilian guitarist Ricardo Peixoto and Jazz vocalist Deborah Winters.

Ken has shared the stage or recording studio with James Montgomery, Johnny Adams, Jimmy Giuffre, Akira Tana, Duke Robillard, actor/singer Jim Belushi, Tanya Donelly, Michelle Willson, Vinx, George Russell,The Holms Brothers, David LaFlamme, Bob Moses, Alex Alvear, Aquilles Baez, John Ramsay, John Lockwood, Bob Gullotti, Vince Lateano, Luciana Souza, Al Molina, Rob Roth, Michael Aragon, Shea Breaux Wells. He has performed throughout the US, Brazil, Mexico and Europe.  Ken has studied extensively with Jerry Bergonzi, Michael Marra, Charlie Banacos, George Russell, Bob Moses, Bevan Manson, Cecil McBee, John Lockwood, Donald Berman and Raymond Herbert.