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228:. After working with Farian, Cook moved to London and went independent, scoring a deal in 1981 with Osceola Records and producing the first Tony Cook and the Party People singles. The next year, he began working with the Halfmoon label, releasing âDo What You Wanna Doâ and later, the seminal âOn the Floorâ and âOn the Floor (Rock-It)â mixes by
185:. âHe sat in with us and he took for granted that we knew the songs,â Cook says of his first encounter with the legendary Godfather of Soul. âSo we played, and from his expression he was a little bit surprised that we could play so well. We were just a bunch of kids. Maybe the oldest one of us was 17. I think I was 15.â
248:âOn the Floorâ found Cook successfully merging funk and disco, although that was not the original intent. The drummer-turned-producer was admittedly trying to score a hit, and to do so, chose to ride the other emerging genre of the day. ââOn the Floorâ was a rap record at first,â he reveals. âWe put the tracks down in
252:, then the record company struck a deal and got Timmy Regisford and Boyd Jarvis to mix it. They took the master and re-recorded a few things, added a few things, and came up with the mix that we ended up with. It was quite a bit different from what we put down in the beginning, but I was pleased with the results.â
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made impromptu appearances on stage. âI donât think he really knew who Prince was at the time,â Cook says of Brown, who first learned that
Jackson was in attendance and called him up onstage. âHe might have known Princeâs name, but he just didnât put a face with it, or didnât understand what Michael
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Cookâs initial tenure with James Brown came to an end in 1993, although he would return in 2005 and stay until Brownâs death on
Christmas Day in 2006. Cook still performs with his band, Trunk-O-Funk. In June 2014 Tony Cook produced and recorded drums on a song "Robo-friend" by Russian alternative
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were in attendance for a bill the group shared with comedian Clay Tyson. The
Godfather had heard that Cook and company were the best outfit in town, and on the strength of their performance that night, hired the crew as his opening act in December 1975. In the early part of 1976, Brown began to
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anthology, a collection of rare and unreleased funk, boogie, and proto-rap from the immediate post-disco era. Stones Throw founder, Chris âPeanut Butter Wolfâ Manak, first learned of Cook when he found the "On the Floor" single in a
255:âWe didnât know what to call it, but it definitely wasnât a rap record anymore. It had more of a dance kind of thing going through it. And it had a little bit of techno to it. When we released it in 1984, the phrase â
291:âMichael said âPrinceâ and Brown probably thought he was talking about another princeâŚa real prince. That wasnât unusual. Weâd go to gigs and anybody might show up.â
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Cook finished high school and was gigging in and around
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before returning to Brown later that year. He stayed with Brown for the next two years until receiving an offer from producer
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and brought Cook aboard as his new drummer, a position the 18-year-old would hold off and on for the next thirty years.
317:"I was excited because it sounded like the missing to me, it seemed like the first house record. I loved playing it.â
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to bring his band Sky Train to
Germany and back Jamaican-born vocalist
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was an
American dance music record producer and former drummer for
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Lessons
Through Funky Time: Tony Cook Interviewed (The Quietus)
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Cook was Brownâs drummer during the historic 1983 concert with
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from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially
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