Doc Cook

{ Charles L. Cooke (September 3, 1891 – December 25, 1958), known as Doc Cook, was an American jazz bandleader and arranger. Cook was a Doctor of Music, awarded by the Chicago Musical College in 1926. Born in Louisville, he first worked as a composer and arranger in Detroit before moving to Chicago around 1910. Cook became resident leader of the orchestra at Paddy Harmon's Dreamland Ballroom in Chicago from 1922 to 1927, acting as conductor and musical director. The ensemble recorded under several names, such as Cookie's Gingersnaps, Doc Cook and his 14 Doctors of Syncopation, and Doc Cook's Dreamland Orchestra. Among those who played in Cook's band were Freddie Keppard, Jimmie Noone, Johnny St. Cyr, Zutty Singleton, Joe Poston, Andrew Hilaire, and Luis Russell. After 1927 Cook's orchestra played in Chicago at the Municipal Pier and the White City Ballroom. In 1930, Cook moved to New York City and worked as an arranger for Radio City Music Hall and RKO, working there into the 1940s. On Broadway, he had a number of important orchestration credits, including The Hot Mikado (1939) and the first U.S. production of The Boy Friend in collaboration with Ted Royal in 1954. A proponent of ragtime, he also worked frequently with Eubie Blake, supplying the arrangements for the 1952 revival of Shuffle Along.

Ragtime Classics, 1901-1919 - 2014-03-04 00:00:00

Really the Blues?: A Blues History (1893-1959), Vol. 1 (1893-1929) - 2012-11-01 00:00:00

Similar Artists

The Savoy Bearcats

The Varsity Eight

Johnny DeDroit And His New Orleans Orchestra

Richard M. Jones' Three Jazz Wizards

Chubb-Steinberg Orchestra

John Tobin's Midnight Serenaders

Thomas Morris and His Seven Hot Babies

Louis Dumaine's Jazzola Eight

Walter Barnes & His Royal Creolians

Issler's Orchestra

Vance Dixon And His Pencils

Charlie Straight & His Orchestra

Johnny Johnson & His Statler Pennsylvanians

Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band

Ross Gorman and His Virginians

Johnny De Droit

Harry Archer & his Orchestra

Irving Kaufman and His Band

Roy Ingraham

Johnny Bayersdorffer