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Gene Parker, who plays saxaphones, flute and piano for the Damen Cook Trio, left, with Jimmy Cook sitting in at Manhattan's in Toledo on May 25, 2004.
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Jimmy Cook: A leader in Toledo jazz history

Jimmy Cook: A leader in Toledo jazz history

It's no coincidence that the finest jazz artists are usually the best storytellers.

Sure, they work hard and practice for countless hours. They learn their scales and chord progressions. But when it comes time to perform, they pick up their instruments and make it tell you a story.

Jimmy Cook was one of the finest jazz musicians ever to call Toledo his home - and that's a pretty elite crowd. His death from cancer Friday at age 78 means this city has lost one of its most colorful and gifted voices - whether or not he had a trumpet in hand.

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"He was a good storyteller, not only verbally but musically," said Gene Parker, a longtime colleague. "He spoke and played like a historian."

Cook's funeral service on Tuesday was standing-room-only at Newcomer Funeral Home as friends, family, fans, and fellow musicians lined up to pay their respects.

Scores of musicians took turns playing jazz continuously during Monday's visitation and before and after Tuesday's funeral, setting up at two "stages" - one in the back of the hall and the other in front of the casket where Jimmy lay with a trumpet in his arms, wearing a gray "Best Grandpa" T-shirt.

As soon as Father Greg Peatee ended the service, a group of 11 musicians struck up "When the Saints Go Marching In" and marched around the room.

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The joyful jazz song never sounded so bittersweet.

Cook arrived in Toledo in 1963 when General Motors transferred him from his hometown of Flint, Mich., to work as a salesman for its AC Delco division.

He was only 33 years old but already had more stories than most people twice his age.

How he got started in entertainment is a good example.

"When I was 7 years old, I tap-danced on a Coca-Cola box and played the vibraphone for my father's band," he told me in a 1993 interview.

Jimmy taught himself to play trumpet at age 9, matching the notes his grandfather, a church organist, picked out on the piano.

His first professional music gig was a memorable experience.

"I was 16 years old. It was myself and a drummer. We set up at a wedding reception andplayed one song. I played the trumpet and the drummer was banging away. The bride's father walked up to us and said, 'What the heck was that?' I said, 'That's "Stardust." He said, 'You're fired.'•"

Cook let out a quick laugh and said he and his buddy were mad at the time because they thought they played well. But the job wasn't a total loss - each of the teenage musicians was paid $17.

Jimmy liked to tell the story of how he once played Miles Davis' trumpet.

It was around 1947, he said, and the now-legendary jazz trumpeter had driven to Flint on a cold winter's night to play a show at the Chicken Shack nightclub. He wanted to thaw out first, so he ordered a drink and handed his trumpet to the bright-eyed 17-year-old local kid and asked him to play for a while. "I played Miles' horn for two hours," Cook said.

The next year, a friend took him to the armory in Flint where his friend's buddy, bebop legend Charlie "Bird" Parker, was to perform. Bird came to the back door, hugged Cook's friend, and, when he found out that Cook was a trumpeter, asked him to fill in for his sick horn player, Benny Harris.

After high school, Cook traveled the Midwest for five years playing with the Rex Pines Territory Band. The band leader bought Cook a bus ticket to join the group for his first show in Glencoe, Minn.

"When I got there the snow was 25 feet deep. I thought, 'What am I in for?'•"

He rumbled around the Midwest jammed into a fume-filled bus, packing a green coat, white shirt, and 12 white cardboard shirt collars that made him look "spiffy" even if his shirt didn't get washed for a week.

There was a time when Jimmy entertained thoughts of moving to New York and giving jazz stardom his best shot.

But then he met his wife, Jan. The couple were married Nov. 3, 1951, and raised five children.

"When I met my wife, that changed everything," he said. "All I wanted to do was have a home and a job and kids and play my horn on the weekends."

The sales job kept him on the road a lot, where he spent his free time - and money - buying toy cars, trucks, and planes for his famous collection that took over every closet and shelf in his West Toledo home.

But he'd check in every night from whatever town he was in.

Jan laughed about the time Jimmy called and caught her in the middle of a household meltdown.

"I told him that the stove wasn't working and I couldn't feed the kids dinner and the washer overflowed. He said, 'I'll call you back when you have more time.' Click!'•"

Jimmy practiced his horn for hours every day, and was practicing until shortly before his death, Jan said.

Cook was a founding member of the Toledo Jazz Orchestra and was known for his smooth, creative, melodic solos on trumpet and flugelhorn.

"It was a joy to play with Jimmy because every time he was improvising, every time he put that horn up to his lips, there was nothing but pure music coming out of it," said Scott Potter, a friend and jazz colleague. "He enjoyed playing music, and he enjoyed musicians. He was just a marvelous player."

Cook was honored by the TJO with concerts spotlighting his skills in 1999 and 2003, and was greatly appreciative of the recognition.

"It's kind to be honored this way and while you're still here," he said.

One of Cook's most memorable performances with the TJO did not involve his trumpet.

In 1986, when Toledo vocalist Jean Holden was singing with the band at the Franciscan Center, Cook climbed onto a bicycle and rode it across the back of the stage in full view of the audience.

"It brought the house down," trumpeter Brad Sharp said.

Sharp said that not only was Cook's musicianship exemplary, but he had a knack for making all the other players feel at ease.

"He made you feel like you were his best friend forever. Even if you couldn't play nearly as good as Jimmy, he treated you like you were his equal," Sharp said.

Ten years ago, when Cook was 68, he told me he wanted to make the most of his time because "I'm getting older and I'm wondering how many more years the Good Lord will let me have. Every day, every minute is important."

He admitted that he often wondered if he could've made it big in the Big Apple.

Ric Wolkins, leader of the TJO's horn section, traveled the country with Bobby Vinton's band in the 1980s and said he would visit the New York City jazz clubs where the best musicians would gather for jam sessions.

He'd come home with a message for Jimmy Cook.

I'd tell him, 'Don't worry about it. There's nobody better than you,'•" Wolkins said.

The Toledo Jazz Society is setting up a Jimmy Cook Memorial Fund. Information is available from the TJS at 419-241-5299.

Contact David Yonke at:

dyonke@theblade.com

or 419-724-6154.

First Published May 16, 2008, 11:27 a.m.

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Gene Parker, who plays saxaphones, flute and piano for the Damen Cook Trio, left, with Jimmy Cook sitting in at Manhattan's in Toledo on May 25, 2004.
Jimmy Cook plays trumpet on Jan. 22, 1999.
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