The Cookers return for ‘hot concert’

Toronto’s The Cookers will bring their high-energy back-to-basics music back to Kamloops for a concert May 2, 7:30 p.m. at St. Andrews on the Square.

The band’s music is rooted in the blues, soul and jazz. Promoter Ray Nyuli of Entertainment Management said The Cookers “blew the audience away” during they’re last Kamloops performance. “This will be a hot concert.”

The Cookers was started in March of 2010 as a way that five like-minded musicians could play together on a weekly basis and create an environment where original music could be played in a club setting.

The group’s popularity quickly grew and it became part of an artistic community. Band members’ students were coming down regularly to hear their teachers, and a group of regulars began showing up each week as word got out.

Though several of Toronto’s long-standing jazz clubs are gone, the Cookers hoped to create some kind of an alternative, no matter how small; a place where down-the-middle Canadian jazz could be heard on a regular basis.

The Cookers are Tim Hamel on trumpet, Ryan Oliver on sax, Richard Whiteman on piano, Alex Coleman on bass and Joel Haynes on drums.

Doors open at 7. Tickets are $20 including GST and ticket fees, at Kamloops Live Box Office, http://www.kamloopslive.com, 250-374-5483.