The book on Braxton Cook speaks for itself. The Juilliard-trained jazz musician and saxophonist used his long membership in the band of Grammy Award-nominated trumpeter Christian Scott to hone his skills and professionalism. With his graduation in 2015, he went solo with the EPs Sketch (2014), Braxton Cook Meets Butcher Brown (2015), and traveled the world touring with the Christian McBride Big Band, Jon Batiste, among others. His musical concepts fuse contemporary soul with classic jazz. The freshen he brings to the studio springs from every chord, every melody. His sound is impeccable, sharp, and daring. Since 2017, Braxton has released more projects with colossal acclaim, Somewhere In Between (2017), No Doubt (2018), and Fire Sign (2020). He’s worked with Rhianna, Quincy Jones, Solange Knowles, and performed at festivals worldwide, continuing to expand his musical concept, compositional and production skills, and growing his community.
With the release of the 2022 EP Black Mona Lisa just as he begins another set of shows crisscrossing the country, it’s no wonder that Braxton Cook is a man always in search of a good cup of coffee.
Do you have a regular spot for coffee?
Out here in Inglewood, I hit Sip and Sonder (cool name, right?). It’s Black-owned; the owner went to school with my wife. But now I’m feeling good and rejuvenated.
Since you got us started here – what’s your coffee order?
Oh man, it depends. So, if it’s in the morning, it’s just black coffee, right to the veins. But if it’s later in the day, I don’t usually go crazy with the espresso and coffee, so it’s just a bit of cappuccino, something chill.
Did I read that you are the middle child?
Yeah, yeah, the second oldest of four boys. (Both laugh) It’s crazy. My mom was a saint, a queen.
What’s the age difference between the four of you?
Three and half years between me and my older brother; he was born in ‘87, I’m ‘91. Most of them are September boys. I’m a March kid. My little brother Brendan, we were raised like damn near twins; we’re only 18 months apart. And my baby brother was born in ‘96.
You and your brother are 18 months apart. Did you ever feel like your Pop was like, “(Sigh) I can do better?” (Both laugh)
That’s funny! I think they wanted a daughter; that’s what it was! (Laughs) When I was 5, this was ‘96, right? I vaguely remember they had a baby book, and they were looking at girl names. They were like, “Do y’all want a baby sister?” I vaguely remember that being the topic of conversation. But my baby brother is mad cool. His name is Broderick but he goes by Brody. We were just hanging out in New York, in fact. He’s my man. He works for the MLB now and lives in Midtown. He’s doing well.
I was going to ask if the creative arts run in the family.
Absolutely. Like, Brody is a better singer than I am, for sure. Brendan – the one that’s 18 months apart – is a full-on artist, as well as an actor. He’s a great actor. Brendan goes by the name; Starchild; he’s a musician. A little Prince-ish in that he plays a little bit of a lot of instruments. He plays a little guitar and bass. With that kind of skill set, he fell into this musical director kind of role, which is where he met Solange Knowles; around the same time that I was working with Chris Scott, in fact. About 2012.
And then my older brother, not so much. He really doesn’t do much music but he can. Brian did theater. We all did musical theater back in the day, and then we grew up just singing around the house, in the church. My parents – my mom played some classical piano; won a bunch of competitions and stuff. And my dad – he might have played a little marching band, but my dad sang, when we went to church, all extra loud in the pews. He’s also a pastor, as well, so we grew up with that Baptist church background as a part of anything.
That’s a common building block for a lot of performers.
Absolutely. That is the first institution where we all became indoctrinated.
There are no plans for a Cook family project or a Cook Brothers’ Christmas?
Yo, that would be fire! For this album I’m working on, I’m definitely incorporating some conversations and energy like that throughout the project to tie the narrative together. I don’t necessarily have them singing or performing, but they’re a very important part of this, shaping the story of who I am and the man I am today. So, I definitely try to keep them close, but I don’t think it’ll be anything explicit like an album or anything like that. They don’t want to, anyway. They like singing in their cars or when they get home.
They probably don’t want to sing, but if you were to come to them like, “Bruh, you know what we need to do? We need to do The Cook Brothers podcast,” they would be right there,
That is a great idea! They would kill that! I’d be the quietest one on there, but they would kill it. They would love that. All we have to do is come up with a name and it’s on. (Both laugh)
I know you’ve been working on the next album for a while, but then you released the EP Black Mona Lisa. What happened there?
I created a lot of this music over the pandemic, and I think a lot of it is that artistic itch to put this music out, you know what I mean? To share this stuff that’s been sitting on the hard drive. In a lot of ways, emotionally, I’ve been carrying the weight of it creatively since 2020. There’s a lot of this music that helped heal me; helped me get through the highs and lows of one of the craziest years ever.
Plus, I feel like the timing of it makes sense, going out on tour, to give people a taste of what I’ve been working on.
When it comes to musicians, I’m always curious about the process of creating music. Listening to Black Mona Lisa, I’m interested in where you were, in the physical sense and emotionally, when you’re inspired to do MB (Ma’Khia Bryant), dedicated to the tragic story of Ma’Khia Bryant.
On April 20, 2021, Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old girl, was fatally shot by police officer Nicholas Reardon in Columbus, Ohio. Body camera and security camera footage show Bryant brandishing a knife and charging two women consecutively, leading up to the moment Officer Reardon fired four shots, one of which struck Bryant, who immediately collapsed and was unresponsive. Reardon and other officers on the scene administered first aid, and transported Bryant to the hospital in critical condition, where she was later pronounced dead. Local and state authorities investigated the case. On March 11, 2022, a grand jury declined to charge Reardon. Her shooting prevented her from stabbing another girl and was deemed a justifiable homicide.
Man. For that tune, it was just…that whole spring of 2020, it seemed like it was every other week, another black person was getting murdered by the police.
Yeah, almost like dominoes.
Yeah, it was really horrible. It was a really tough time. We just had to deactivate all social media, get up off our phones, and then we just had to get up out of New York. I remember that it was a tough time for me and (wife) Chaya.
That was the beginning of me trying just to step away and reflect – I think it was after George Floyd. I was just completely overwhelmed, really. I wrote a few pieces, and me and Chaya talked about how I needed to write a song that speaks to some of these issues, something that captures this moment. So I remember actively trying to do that, and it didn’t really come until almost a year later. But, you know, like sometimes it’s those ideas that are planted that take a while to process, kind of like grief really, when all of that is happening at one time.
So in 2021, when I see Ma’Khia Bryant being murdered, I’ve got a session opened up in Logic with (British composer, drummer) Moses Boyd’s drums – who’s also initialed MB. I just had his drum grooves, just looping, I remember, 100 beats per minute and I just hit record with the mic one and just started kind of riffing and coming up with this baseline. And I just came up with the melody right on the spot, stacked that with some tracks, G-minor chords and then, boom, the sax part.
I can probably still find that session somewhere, but that’s the initial demo, exactly how it all kind of came to me while that’s kind of in the back of my mind.
I appreciate it, especially after reading about your work with director Steve McQueen a little bit ago on his project about black music being a soundtrack to Black history, world history even. That’s why I was really interested in how you put that piece together.
People always tell me how cinematic or visual my songs have come out being and I owe that to the artists who I look up to – (John) Coltrane, Miles (Davis), and all the legends I admire who I hope to have an iota of their talent and abilities and talents. Coltrane’s Alabama is another good example. It’s got to be bigger than the music at some point. If nothing else, fatherhood is teaching me that everything has got to have a greater purpose, and I think for me, it’s important that I use the platform that I have to speak to some of these issues, to bring light to it.
I have a tune for Trayvon Martin that I wrote years ago, but there’s something about Ma’Khia Bryant and her story, Breonna Taylor and her story, Sandra Bland and her story. A lot of black women’s stories don’t see the light of day or certainly don’t get the same amount of attention or impressions in the news cycle.
It’s more than just interesting. It’s been a part of the patriarchy, and it’s unfortunate. There are just so many times in life to get the point across, to make something happen, you need allies that not only the people that match the same kind of image as the victim, but you also need allies that are Black men and white people; people of all different backgrounds sometimes to actually push something across the finish line. It’s important to have Black men speak up for issues that are going to benefit those that don’t look like them all the time. It’s important to really enact some change. So I like to speak about those issues. Black women are getting brutalized by the police and murdered by the police. It’s not always Black men. That still happens, but it happens to black women, too.
It’s crazy, man, so it’s just important to speak to all these evils, especially the ones that are intersectional.
History has shown that there is no bigger ally to the world than a black woman, so they are certainly overdue for our support. So what’s the story behind the title track, Black Mona Lisa? First, let me tell you, I love the album art.
I appreciate that. I’m happy where we landed with that, so that’s cool to hear; thank you.
That’s one of these tunes that just evolved; I wrote that and a lot of music over the pandemic. (Laughs) I know the pandemic seems like it was a long ass time. I wrote that in 2021, I wanna say.
Act 2 of the Pandemic (laughs). I got you.
Exactly. I wrote that not too long after my wife found out that she was pregnant, I think in December 2020. In some ways, the song (and a lot of my music) is very much about her but this one is about this next phase of life that I’m stepping into – fatherhood. We just bought a house. We’re in this new phase of adulthood. I’m just stepping into the blessing, but you gotta be ready for what comes with it. But I’m very grateful for this phase and everything that’s happening for us.
We’ve been together almost ten years now, you know, I mean, we’re not exactly the same as far as my introversion or her extroversion, but how we’ve learned to navigate those and love each other, and know how we need to be in love and support one another. It’s really a beautiful thing; that’s how you get into those deeper levels of relationship. Black Mona Lisa is trying just to encapsulate the beauty of this moment. It’s just a beautiful, picturesque life that we’re living right now; it feels like a fairytale.
Who’s the better cook?
(Laughs) Oh, honestly. Aww, man!
This is going online. Watch your words.
Exactly (laughs)! Why you do that? Chaya would say me, but I would say her because she’s better at improvising.
She’s better than the jazz musician at improvising?
In the kitchen, for sure. Yeah, bro, it’s funny, I know!
That makes absolutely no sense. Cooking is all about improvisation.
I know! It turns out I’m this real OCD kind of guy when it comes to cooking. Shit’s gotta be tidy, it’s gotta be right. Where’s my measuring cup? (Laughs) I didn’t think it’d be that way either; I don’t know what happened.
Last question. If you had your own custom utility belt (like Batman), what would be in your utility belt, Braxton Cook?
A teleportation device. Never in an airport again. Don’t travel at all. Just teleport, boop! I’m there, then back to the crib.
What’s another thing in the utility belt? Oh yeah, caffeine. (Both laugh) I don’t do any drugs but that one right there; gotta have it.
Load the belt up with caffeine tablets, huh?
I don’t need much, bruh. That right there will just about do it.
And you need a measuring cup.
(Laughs) Hilarious! I need those measuring spoons, bro. I need the spoons!
