By Brett Callwood
The 19th Annual Gardena Jazz Festival is set to take place on Sunday, August 28 at Rowley Park. As is generally the case, the organizers have assembled a stellar array of talent, and the News will be speaking with a number of them as the date approaches. This week was the turn of Braxton Cook, the Emmy-winning jazz fusion artist.
How long have you been playing, and what are your career highlights?
I picked up the saxophone at age 11 in the 5th grade. However, I didn’t discover jazz music until 8th or 9th grade when I joined the jazz band at my high school, Springbrook High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. Actually, during my sophomore year of High School, Wynton Marsalis visited to conduct a 2 hour long master class during which he coached our Big Band through a few Duke Ellington compositions. It was during “It Don’t Mean a Thing” that I got a nice saxophone feature and performed a long solo for a packed auditorium. Wynton went to the piano and comped for me and complimented my playing and phrasing. Then we spoke a bit one on one after the Masterclass. He gave me some encouraging words and that was the push I needed to pursue a career and life as a jazz musician.
Describe your sound…
It’s difficult to describe my sound in words but I can say my music is rooted in jazz and heavily influenced by alternative R&B, Soul, hip-hop and indie rock.
Do you have any recorded output?
I have recorded several albums and EPs over the past 10 years. And I have another EP coming out September 16th called Black Mona Lisa.
Have you played Gardena Jazz Fest before?
I’ve actually performed at the Gardena Jazz Festival years ago and it was an amazing experience. Steven Bradford was responsible for booking me back then and it was a great honor.
What can we expect from your Jazz Fest set this year?
You can expect to hear some mostly original music of mine. Some new music from upcoming EP called Black Mona Lisa as well as some tracks from my past discography. To people that don’t know me or my music will see that my music covers a wide array of styles being that I also sing as well, my set will range from R&B to John Coltrane inspired compositions but everything is rooted in soul and ultimately comes from the Black American tradition.
What else do you have going on this year, besides the Jazz Fest?
Like I previously mentioned, I will be releasing an EP called Black Mona Lisa on Sept. 16. Then I will be following that up with a joint project with an L.A. based artist named Kiefer in late September. We will be supporting that release with a 6 city U.S. Tour Oct. 9-20th. Tickets to our fall tour are available on my website braxtoncook.com/tour-dates.
