Doc Cook

{{Short description|American jazz bandleader and arranger (1891–1958)}}

{{about||the baseball player|Doc Cook (baseball)|the basketball coach|Doc Cooke}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Doc Cook

| image = Doc Cook.jpg

| caption = Doc Cook, ca. 1910

| image_size =

| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist

| birth_name = Charles L. Cooke

| alias = Doc Cook

| birth_place = Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.

| birth_date = September 2, 1891

| death_place = Wurtsboro, New York, U.S.

| death_date = December 25, 1958

| origin =

| instrument =

| genre = Jazz

| occupation = Musician, bandleader, arranger

| years_active =

| label = Gennett

| associated_acts =

| website =

| current_members =

| past_members =

}}

Charles L. Cooke (September 3, 1891 – December 25, 1958), known as Doc Cook, was an American jazz bandleader and arranger. Cook was a Doctor of Music, awarded by the Chicago Musical College in 1926.The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, {{ISBN|978-0-935859-39-3}}

Born in Louisville, he first worked as a composer and arranger in Detroit before moving to Chicago around 1910. Cook became resident leader of the orchestra at Paddy Harmon's Dreamland Ballroom in Chicago from 1922 to 1927, acting as conductor and musical director.

The ensemble recorded under several names, such as Cookie's Gingersnaps, Doc Cook and his 14 Doctors of Syncopation, and Doc Cook's Dreamland Orchestra. Among those who played in Cook's band were Freddie Keppard, Jimmie Noone, Johnny St. Cyr, Zutty Singleton, {{ill|Joe Poston|de}}, Andrew Hilaire, and Luis Russell.[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p328885|pure_url=yes}} Doc Cook] at Allmusic.com After 1927 Cook's orchestra played in Chicago at the Municipal Pier and the White City Ballroom.{{cite web |title=Charles "Doc" Cooke (1891-1958)|url=https://syncopatedtimes.com/charles-doc-cooke-1891-1958/ |website=Red Hot Jazz Archive |accessdate=20 August 2020 }}

In 1930, Cook moved to New York City and worked as an arranger for Radio City Music Hall and RKO, working there into the 1940s. On Broadway, he had a number of important orchestration credits, including The Hot Mikado (1939) and the first U.S. production of The Boy Friend in collaboration with Ted Royal in 1954.[http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=4771 Internet Broadwat Database listing] A proponent of ragtime, he also worked frequently with Eubie Blake, supplying the arrangements for the 1952 revival of Shuffle Along.Steven Suskin, The Sound of Broadway Music, Oxford University Press, New York, 2009, p. 82 {{ISBN|978-0-19-530947-8}}