Unlike most pioneer jazz musicians who went by "Doc" or "Professor," Charles "Doc" Cook actually had a doctorate degree in music, from the Chicago College of Music. Cook made a name for himself as conductor and music director of the Orchestra at Paddy Harmon's Dreamland Ballroom from 1922 to 1927 in Chicago. Many of Chicago's finest musicians played for Cook, including Freddie Keppard, Jimmie Noone, Johnny St. Cyr, Zutty Singleton and Luis Russell. The band, which played in the city's Near West Side, also recorded under the names Cookie's Gingersnaps and Doc Cook and his 14 Doctors of Syncopation. Cook's Dreamland orchestra ended in 1927 when he took his orchestra to Chicago's Municipal Pier and on to the White City Ballroo. Cooke moved to New York in 1930 to become staff arranger at R.K.O. and Radio City Music Hall, where he remained until the early 1940s. ~ Ron DePasquale, Rovi