Richard Cook (journalist)

Richard David Cook (7 February 1957 – 25 August 2007) was a British jazz writer, magazine editor and former record company executive. Sometimes credited as R. D. Cook, Cook was born in Kew, Surrey,^[1] and lived in west London as an adult. A writer on music from the late 1970s until he died, Cook was co-author, with Brian Morton, of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings,^[2] which lasted for ten editions until 2010. His other books included Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia, Blue Note Records: The Biographyand, and It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off the Record.^[3]

For other people with the same name, see Richard Cook (disambiguation).

Richard Cook
Born	Richard David Cook 7 February 1957 Kew, Surrey, England
Died	25 August 2007(2007-08-25) (aged 50) London, England
Other names	R. D. Cook
Occupations	Jazz writer magazine editor
Notable work	Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia

Career

Cook began as a staff writer for New Musical Express (NME) in the early 1980s.^[3] NME's editor at the time, Neil Spencer, commented that he "would take on the pieces that the fashion-oriented shunned – a Roxy Music review, an audience with a fading star, a piece on the emergent sounds of Africa".^[4] He was later the jazz critic for The Sunday Times and a music writer for the New Statesman. Cook was formerly editor of The Wire, when it was a jazz-centred periodical (it broadened its coverage towards the end of his editorship), and edited Jazz Review magazine from its foundation in 1998. Jazz Review continued for a time after his death, using Cook's approach to the music as continuing inspiration; it did not name a specific successor (Morton) for six months. Cook also presented a programme on jazz for BBC local radio GLR.

Cook was the UK jazz catalogue manager for PolyGram (1992–97) and also produced albums by the trumpeter Guy Barker.^[5] During his spell at PolyGram, Cook launched the short-lived "Redial" re-issue line of classic British jazz albums. In 2002, he was responsible for issuing a 10-CD limited-edition set by the American avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor of 1990 recordings, 2 Ts for a Lovely T, on the Codanza label.

Death

Cook died from bowel and liver cancer on 25 August 2007, aged 50, in London, a year after diagnosis.^[6]