Mssr_Renard
I have to say; I really adore The Cookers. I like each member of this collective, I love the enthousiasm, the choice of songs (be it new or old songs) and I love the execution.
The Cookers are somewhat of a supergroup. All of the collective's members have a long list of albums as leaders and/or members of other bands or groups.
The music of The Cookers is somewhere between the hard-bop and post-bop, maybe closest to mid-sixties and early eighties Jazz Messengers, but The Cookers sound mostly as themselvers.
The heavy and sloppy drumming of Billy Hart, the growling saxophone of Billy Harper, the tight and bluesy piano of George Cables. All these ingredients make for an enjoyable almost old-school listening-experience.
On this album all songs are penned by the collective themselves, and I can't really remember if these songs were played before by the bandmembers on other albums, but at least 'Sir Galahad' appears on Capra Black from Billy Harper (released in 1973 on Strata East), aswell as 'Dance Eternal Spirits Dance' wich appears on Harper's Black Saint-album from 1975.
Slipping and Sliding seem to have been released before on an album by The Leaders (another supergroup featuring McBee and Arthur Blythe amongst others).
The two Cables-songs (Double or Nothing and Farewell Mulgrew) were released on trio-albums by Cables as a leader, wich have a more grand arrangement here.
All in all, the Cookers deliver another great post-bop album which soars and can be considered an essential album. Maybe it is kind of eclectic but because of the great production and the talent involved it is a very enjoyable listen. All of the Cookers' albums have a high standard, though.