Black Violin

The Be Free Tour, Featuring Braxton Cook

Black Violin has plays roughly 200 shows a year; many of which are performances for young, low-income students in urban communities. In the last year alone, the group has played for over 100,000 students with the goal of challenging stereotypes and preconceived notions of what a “classical musician” looks and sounds like.  “The stereotypes are always there, embedded so deep in our culture,” says Wil. “Just by nature of our existence we challenge those ideas. It’s a unique thing that brings people together who aren’t usually in the same room, and in the current climate, it’s good to bring people together.”

In 2019, the group launched the Black Violin Foundation Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering youth by providing access to quality music programs in their community. BVF believes that music and access to music programs should not be determined by race, gender, or socio-economic status. Black Violin Foundation’s inaugural program the Musical Innovation Grant for Continuing Education will provide scholarships to young music students to attend a program of their liking that fosters musical creativity and innovation. 

For more info on Black Violin: http://www.blackviolin.net

For more info on the Black Violin Foundation: http://www.blackviolinfoundation.org

Discography: http://blackviolin.net/albums/

One can hear Cook breaking through on Not Everyone Can Go, a mix of jazz and R&B that feels indebted to similar hybrids of yesteryear. Musically, the album conjures images of bright evening sunshine, when the temperature begins to cool. Not quite Quiet Storm, instead, Not Everyone Can Go dabbles between the margins, which won’t surprise those who’ve followed Cook to this point. Across albums like Somewhere In Between, No Doubt and Who Are You When No One Is Watching?, he’s made a career of blurring the lines between genres, landing on a sound that isn’t one thing, in particular. While that’s made his music tough to pin down, that also makes it all the more intriguing. That you can’t label it just R&B or just jazz lends to the music’s attraction.

The making of the album also represents a breakthrough for Cook. It was the most collaborative process of his career where he further integrated into his musical network in Los Angeles. Vocal features include NNAVY (“Weekend”) and Marie Dahlstrom (“All My Life”), and additional producers include Bubele on “Bad,” Austin Brown of Hablot Brown on “We’ve Come So Far”, and bassist Kaveh Ragestar (Kneebody) on “All My Life.” Musically,he and his bandmates would improvise and let the energy flow however it needed. One can hear this free-flow on the album’s instrumental tracks — “Zodiac,” “Kingdom Come,” “My Sun” (featuring Elijah Cook), and “Josh’s Tune.”

Lyrically, parts of the album address Cook’s realization that life will get better, that even though it’s challenging right now, “the future is bright,” as he sings on the track “My Everything,” the album’s first single. “It’s about a man who continued to selfishly follow his own dreams at the sake of missing the big picture,” Cook said. “And I’m telling myself, ‘We’re going to work through a rough patch here, but things will turn around.” To emphasize that creative focus, Not Everyone Can Go follows the trek of conflict, from where a romantic relationship is going through challenges to when the couple makes it to the other side. The album soundtracks that journey without placing blame on one person or the other. Rather, Cook assesses his own role in the disconnect, as if doing the necessary self work to show up fully for his significant other. “I put ‘My Everything’ near the beginning to establish the conflict,” he said. “Then we work our way through it. By the time we get to ‘We’ve Come So Far,’ it’s a moment of gratitude and a breath in the record — a pop song that’s like, ‘Wait a second, we’re going to be alright.’” 

The album’s second half incorporates love songs about the rediscovery of affection. The track “Bad,” which takes sonic cues from late-‘90s R&B, with its slow, body-rolling pace and lush electric keys, finds Cook singing about dating his partner with renewed romance. The same goes for “All My Life.” Here, the singer sounds transfixed, akin to the time when you see your partner again, after the storm has passed and the connection feels fresh once more. These songs speak to the kind of cycle found in most relationships, when the day-to-day gets shaky and serious decisions need to be made. But where some decide to part ways in search of someone new, Cook, through these songs, opts to fight for love. Because the partnership is too genuine and there’s a lot of history at stake. “The last part of the album is the action for me,” Cook said. “It’s the act of rebuilding these relationships the way that I want and the way that I see them, and that’s what those love songs are about. ‘Bad’ is very much about taking my wife back out on a date. As if we were just courting each other all over again.”

Ultimately, though, Not Everyone Can Go is about embracing change, that when seasons arrive where moves are inevitable, you have to lean into them. “Be who you are, obviously,” Cook said. “But with that, some things will shift and it’s okay. 

“I think the whole world,” he continued, “there’s a lot to be up in arms about, a lot to be stressed about, a lot to be scared about. But this particular record, it’s a reminder to myself and others to take stock in what it is you do have and be grateful for breath in your lungs. It’s like, ‘Man, I’m alive.’ I got breath in my lungs. I got up today. I have two beautiful kids. And I’m like, it’s going to be alright.”