CD review: The Cookers – Look Out! 2021: Video, CD cover

In jazz’s heyday era of the heady 60s and early 70s, these cats were behind some of the greatest releases of the genre, from Pharaoh Sanders’ Karma to Charles Lloyd’s Forest Flower.

Collectively they’ve performed and recorded with the likes of Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock, and McCoy Tyner, Together they carry forth this legacy as The Cookers, one of the 21st century’s foremost supergroups. Cat’s Out The Bag is their first album in 5 years and the first to be recorded at Van Gelder’s historic Englewood Cliffs studio. Featuring all original compositions, the music embodies the name of this illustrious ensemble; hot, hard-hitting soul jazz, full of momentum and fire.

1 The Mystery of Monifa Brown 8:30
2 Destiny Is Yours 9:36
3 Cat’s Out The Bag 5:00
4 Somalia 6:37
5 AKA Reggie 7:14
6 Traveling Lady 8:36
7 Mutima 9:03

Billy Harper: tenor sax
Eddie Henderson: trumpet
David Weiss: trumpet
Donald Harrison: alto sax
George Cables: piano
Cecil McBee: bass
Billy Hart: drums