Jazz Writer Richard Cook Dies
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The co-author of the Penguin Guide To Jazz Recordings Richard Cook died of cancer at the weekend aged just 50. One of the most internationally known British jazz writers, Richard was an author of books on Miles Davis, a jazz encyclopedia and the history of Blue Note records as well as co-author, with Brian Morton, of eight editions of the Penguin Guide.
Richard was also editor of Jazz Review magazine and before that was head of jazz at the London office of Polygram, producing records for Guy Barker during that time and establishing the Redial label which reissued records by Tubby Hayes and Joe Harriott among others. He was also a former editor of Wire magazine and as a rock journalist in the early part of his career was a well regarded feature writer for NME. His early death is a great loss to music writing.