Home: Eureka, CA Genre: Folk, Rock, Jazz
Matthew Cook is an artist from Northern California. Surrounded by the beauty of our ancient Redwood Forests, steeped in the stillness and awe-inspiring power of nature, his art speaks of a sense of peace and well-being amid the struggles of being human.
Trained as a Classical Pianist at Cornish School Of Fine Arts in Seattle, WA, and Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA, his 30 year career has included performances all over the West Coast and in Hawaii. Currrently based out of Humboldt County in Northern California, Matthew Cook logs over 200 performances a year as a solo pianist and a singer-songwriter.
With 9 Solo Piano CDs and one DVD, Matthew Cook has a vast and varied repertoire from which to draw. A recent project, ‘Another Piece Of Me,’ is a guitar/vocal CD released in October, 2005. Most of these songs have to do with environments--the people and places around him--and his relationship to them.
‘My life is my art and my art is my life. It has always been thus for me and I have had interesting and rich experiences for it. I have been fortunate to be able to share pieces of that through my music. Over the years I have developed my own solo piano style, ‘Folk Jazz’, combining the simplicity, accessibility and personableness of Folk Music with some of the heady elements of Modern Jazz.’
| The Music:
Click To Listen: |
Guitar/Vocal 2:26 2.8 Mb MP3 | Mountainside Solo Piano 3:06 3.4 Mb MP3 | Passage Solo Piano 4:26 12.2 Mb MP4 |
| Contact Info: Matthew Cook 707-444-6267 arcook@matthewcook.com | |||
| Press:
Matthew Cook is one of my favorite artists who does mostly “cover” material because he relies on the melodies and emotions of the music to reach the listener rather than a lot of fancy fingerwork meant only to dazzle. --Kathy Parsons, Solo Piano Publications |
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| Pianist Matthew Cook, once the piano man for the Benbow Inn, now tinkles the ivories Thursdays through Sundays at Cher-Ae Heights' Sunset Restaurant. An exception is this Friday, Oct. 21, when Matthew shifts into guitar-playing singer/songwriter mode for a gig at The Metro celebrating the release of his guitar/vocal album, Another Piece of Me. Recorded above Luffenholtz Beach and mastered at Capitol Records, the collection of songs seems cathartic, especially new ones dealing with the undoing of a long-term relationship. In the title track he sings, "At first I was unaware, then I was unafraid. I was so unprepared to live the life we'd made. It was so unexplained... " Listening to him play at the North Country Fair the other day, I could see the pieces of the puzzle falling into place. --Bob Doran, North Coast Journal | |||
| Independent Artist Registry Endorsement. | |||