The multi-instrumentalist Michael Cooke is a composer of Jazz and Classical music. This two time Emmy and Louis Armstrong Jazz Award winner plays a variety of instruments, you will hear him play soprano, alto & tenor sax, flute, soprano & bass clarinet, bassoon and percussion. Michael started playing jazz in High school where he played for homeless shelters in Atlanta. A cum laude music graduate University of North Texas, Michael has played in Europe, Mexico and all over the United States. After relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has been exploring new styles and has been studying Larry Ochs “Radar” composition techniques. Denise Berardini of the San Francisco Beacon describes Michael's “talented sax flowing out color and tone with such feeling I haven’t heard in quite a while. Michael plays with such dimension and flavor, that it sets (his) sound apart from the rest.” Uncompromising, fiery, complex, passionate, and cathartic is how the All Music Guide labeled Michael’s playing on Searching by Cooke Quartet, Statements by Michael Cooke and The Is by CKW Trio. His latest release, an indefinite suspension of the possible explores new paths mixing a variety of styles and techniques drawing upon the inspiration and creative energy of multi-cultural and diverse music from around the world and from inside and outside the American and European jazz and avant-garde traditions.
JazzReview.com
