Junior Cook: Junior's Cookin auf CD

Junior Cook was in the wave of superior jazz players that wafted up to New York from Florida in the 1950s. He never achieved the celebrity of fellow Floridians like Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Blue Mitchell, and Sam Jones, but his tenor saxophone artistry made an impact on his generation of musicians and on knowledgeable listeners. Following a stint with Dizzy Gillespie, Cook joined Horace Silver in 1958 and stayed with him until 1964. For most of that time, his front-line partner was Mitchell, with whom he formed a partnership that continued in Mitchell's group after Silver disbanded. This album, the first under Cook's name, is by the Silver combo minus the leader. It was made when he was 26 years old. The maturity, deliberation, and continuity of his solos make it understandable why he influenced other young musicians, including Joe Henderson.