Trombonist Marty Cook is better known in Europe than the U.S. due to his overseas collaborations, touring,and recordings. Born in New York City in May of 1947, he was reared in Ohio, where he started playing trombone at age seven. Cook moved back to N.Y.C. in the late '60s and was involved in the then burgeoning loft scene of creative improvising jazz musicians. He worked with the legendary saxophonist Marzette Watts in 1968, joined a rock band in California from 1971-1972, and then returned to New York,performing with loft jazz pioneers Sam Rivers, Joe Lee Wilson, Jay Clayton,and Ted Daniel. Expatriating to Europe in 1973, Cook was welcomed with open arms as a sideman with Gunter Hampel and Jeanne Lee. In 1979, he moved to Munich, forming his New York Sound Explosion, which included Monty Waters, Ratzo Harris, Art Lewis, John Betsch, Jim Pepper, and Essiet Okon Essiet. In the '80s, '90s,and 2000s, he played with the Sam Rivers Big Band, Mal Waldron, Tommy Flanagan, David Murray, Sunny Murray, Aki Takase, Reggie Workman, Maria João, John Scofield, Embryo, Allan Praskin, Günther Klatt, Harry Sokal, Paul Grabowsky, Esbjörn Svensson and E.S.T., Barbara Dennerlein, Charlie Haden's Liberation Orchestra, Peter Erskine, Nguyên Lê, Michel Benita, Larry Porter, Chris Beier, Peter O'Mara and Ibn Battuta. In the late '90s he founded the ensemble Conspiracy alongside Takase, Betsch, Rudi Mahall, and Ed Schuller. His most prominent collaborations with the Kaw Indian saxophonist Jim Pepper were documented on the Tutu/Enja CD's Nightwork (1986) and Red, White, Black Blue (1987). Other recordings include Trance (1979), Hard Core (1990), Borderlines (1993), Phases of the Moon (1994), and Theory of Strange. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi