Robert Rook was born in 1966 in
Utrecht, the Netherlands. His first band experience on the piano was when he
was 10 years old. At eleven he did his first radio performance where he
played Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo a la Turk. His first classical music
radio performance was at sixteen in the Spiegelzaal of the Concertgebouw for
the radio program Für Elise, where he played a Rachmaninov piece next to
Crystal Silence from Chick Corea.
After highschool Robert studied Mathematics at the State University of Utrecht. While studying Mathematics he played in 1991 and 1992 in the quartet of Wim Overgaauw (godfather of Dutch jazz guitarplaying), with Frans van der Hoeven on bass and Marcel Serierse on drums. In 1993 he received his Master's degree in Mathematical Logic.
During 1994 and 1995 he played in the band Kova, with a.o. Michael Varekamp and Simon Richter.From 1994 to 1998 he was a steady member of the group of saxophonist Kees Smit with Thomas Winther Andersen on bass and Bart van Helsdingen on drums. Starting in 1995 he regularly collaborated with Ghasem Batamuntu, resulting in the CD 'Life on Uranus ' of The Nova Ghost Sect*Tet (1998). In 1996 Robert worked with the group SFEQ for six months.
His first CD under his own name was released in 1997: 'Introducing Robert Rook', and rereleased in 2003 at Kyoto Records (Japan). On this CD Robert plays with three different trio's: on bass Frans van der Hoeven, Sven Schuster and Thomas Andersen, and on drums Joost van Schaik and Chander Sardjoe. From 1997 till 1999 Robert worked together with alto saxophone player Miguel Martinez, Thomas Andersen en Chander Sardjoe in a group called Sketch, that released a CD with the same name in 1998 and with which he toured Norway in 1999.
From 1999 till 2004 Robert worked as
a senior software developer at software company Micros B.V. During this
period Robert played with his own trio with Thomas Winther Andersen
on bass and Dick Verbeeck on drums and with his own quartet with Rob Armus
on the tenor saxophone. For the rest he played a.o. with Miguel Martinez,
Henk Zomer, Jasper Blom, Chander Sardjoe, Ghasem Batamuntu, Sven Shuster,
Victor de Boo,
Ernst Glerum, Han
Bennink, Saskio Laroo and many more.
Because Robert was not satisfied with the combination software developer/jazz
musician and because he didn't like the influence that the job had on his
musical life he decided to resign from his software developing job on the
end of May 2004.
Robert played in the finals of the Deloitte Jazz Award 2005 where he played
with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (conductor: Henk Meutgeert) and
he was awarded with a prize of 2500 euro.
(video semi-finals: click
here)
Recently Robert launched his new CD (recorded live) entitled 'Dangerous Cats',
on which you can hear both
his trio and his quartet. This CD contains both standards as well as compositions of Robert Rook.
The CD was released both in the Netherlands as in Japan.
Furthermore the trio Bennink/Glerum/Rook
is being started up with Han Bennink
en Ernst Glerum.
In February 2006 Robert Rook presented his CD 'Dangerous Cats' at the
Bimhuis in Amsterdam and got a great review in the Volkskrant (to read the
review click
here).
The concert was also broadcasted on the radio (Concertzender). The CD
'Dangerous Cats' also got a lot of airplay on the radio.
In March 2006 the Robert Rook Trio appeared on a Dutch national television
program called
'Vrije Geluiden' (to see the program click
here).
In 2006 Robert played again in the finals of the Deloitte Jazz Award with
the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (conductor: Henk Meutgeert) and
he was awarded with a prize of 2500 euro.
(video semi-finals: click
here)
Also his CD 'Dangerous Cats' got raving reviews both in the Netherlands as
in Japan (see reviews).
After the concert of Robert Rook 'Dangerous Cats' at the
Northsea Jazz
festival in July 2006 the Robert Rook released 2 new CD's:
One CD 'Hymn for Fall' with compositions written by bass player Thomas
Winther Andersen and a double CD 'Dangerous Cats 2' recorded live at the
Bimhuis with originals and standards.
In October 2008 the Robert Rook trio released a DVD 'Live in Amsterdam'
recorded at the Bimhuis in 2007.
The DVD contains standards and originals by Robert Rook and Thomas Winther
Andersen.
In Februari 2011 the Robert
Rook quartet released a double CD called 'Tribute To Jochem'.
The CD contains mostly originals by Robert Rook and Thomas Winther
Andersen.
In Oktober 2013
the Robert Rook trio released a CD called 'Momentum'.
The CD contains mostly originals by Robert Rook.
In April 2014 Robert Rook collaborated with a CD of the quartet of female
Lithuanian singer Rugile
Daujotaite called 'A Promise'.