Contact Information:
Kevin Cook
Artistic Soundz Entertainment
P.O. Box 1051 New Brunswick, NJ 08903-1051
kevcomusic@optonline.net
732.317.3734 Fax
732.819.7621 Phone

I, Kevin Cook, started studying music at the age of 5. My first musical instructor was my oldest brother Curtis. Curtis was also a drummer. I started studying classical music at the age of 10 through grade school on up to High School.

I began playing music professionally at the age of 14 with an R & B band called 'Two and a Half Cans'. We backed up a singing group called the 'U Bands', which patterned their sounds after the Chi-lites.

I also performed in jam sessions around the Newark and New York areas. While in college, I briefly studied with Thad Jones, master drummer Charlie Persip, and also master drummer Warren Smith.

I performed with such groups as Wildfire, and The Bernard Judd Group. While with the Bernard Judd Group, I performed with bassist Shahid Shabib, who was performing with tenor-saxaphonist and playwright Archie Shepp.

From there, I performed with composer Butch Morris' Systems Orchestra, which included such artist as Billy Bang, Frank Lowe, Jason Wong, Luther Thomas, and Jimmy Lyons.

I toured Europe with Luther Thomas' group, and performed at Dusselldorf, Dusborg, and West Berlin in Germany.

In the 80's, I performed with the Bernard Judd Group at such places as the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Henry Street Settlement Playhouse. In the Bernard Judd Group, there were musicians such as Bassist Steve Neal, Andy McCloud, Pianist Alex Lombard, and percussionist Richard Byrd.

In the mid-90's, I free-lanced in the New Jersey/New York area before eventually becoming a member of Internationally-known poet and playwright Amiri Baraka's New Ark Orchestra. With the New Ark Orchestra, I performed at New York University, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Clark University in Atlanta, and also Stoney Brook College.

I also performed with singer Dwight West, featuring organist John Patton.

Most recently, I formed the Artistic Soundz Entertainment label to showcase the current group and new CD 'Music for My Love Ones'.