line up

• Billy Harper (Tenor Sax)
• Billy Hart (Drums)
• Cecil McBee (Bass)
• Craig Handy (Alto Sax & Flute)
• David Weiss (Trumpet)
• Eddie Henderson (Trumpet)
• George Cables (Piano)

• country:
  USA
• region:
  New York City
• style(s):
  Jazz
• label:
  not signed
• type:
  Band
• instrumentation:
  instrumental
• artist submitted by:
  BPR

One of the highlights of the late 1950s and early 1960s was the development of "hard bop", a driving first-born descendent of the bebop era.

Jazz legends like Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Max Roach were the innovators who created this sound and Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard developed this sound and perhaps brought this music to its greatest heights.

The gig where it all exploded into mainstream was at Club La Marchal in Brooklyn, New York, resulting in the two classic Blue Note LPs entitled "Night of the Cookers" (which featured Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, James Spaulding, Harold Mabern and Pete "LaRoca" Sims).

The Cookers is comprised of many of the musicians who contributed to the development of the sound and to pushing the music forward from there. While giants in their own right, the members of this ensemble have performed and/or recorded with pretty much every jazz great of the past 40 years including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Herbie Hancock, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, and Dexter Gordon, to name just a few.
The group performs newly arranged versions of classic compositions by Billy Harper along with works by the other members of the ensemble.