Cookie Coogan

jazz vocalist

Cookie Coogan is a gifted jazz singer now working in the Upstate New York region. She has appeared with many different bands and band leaders as well as with her own groups and as a solo artist. Cookie's repertoire consists of over 150 tunes ranging from popular and lesser-known standards of the Great American Songbook, to jazz and blues classics, to Brazilian bossa novas, and charming originals. With her wide vocal range and versatile tone, she presents each selection---whether a warm ballad or a foot-stompin' blues---in an authentic and personal jazz style.

Cookie has often been compared to Ella Fitzgerald for her bright scat improvisations and fun-filled approach to music. Many singers and instrumentalists inform Cookie's approach to the material she performs. She cites Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Jack Teagarden, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Jefferson, Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy, Mel Torme, Joe Williams, and the composers Horace Silver, Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn among others as major influences.

Cookie tailors each performance to the specific audience and event. She is comfortable performing in a variety of venues from large dances, parties, and concerts to intimate club settings. She hires the best professional sidemen the region has to offer.

Cookie is also a pianist, a composer, an arranger, and an educator. She directs the Ithaca College Vocal Jazz Ensemble in Ithaca, NY and works with jazz students throughout the Upstate New York region

"Cookie is a wonderful, gutsy, soulful jazz and blues singer. Not to be missed." -Deb Clover, musician; arts administrator, Ithaca, NY

"[her] voice is a banquet of delights" -Dorman T. Schindler, critic, Kansas City, MO

Check out this website to learn more about the Central New York jazz scene

Check out this great jazz site. Cookie can often be found hanging at the speakeasy.