Oct 28, 2025 10:47 AM
In Memoriam: Jack DeJohnette, 1942–2025
Jack DeJohnette, a bold and resourceful drummer and NEA Jazz Master who forged a unique vocabulary on the kit over his…
“Beyonce’s doing it great, and Rihanna,” says Braxton Cook of balancing family and the demands of a music career. “But we got to make that cool amongst the dudes.”
(Photo: Ricardo Nagaoka)Braxton Cook, an alumnus of jazz trumpeter Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah’s (formerly Christian Scott) band who went solo in 2017, has a talent for spinning the seasons of his life into arresting musical self-portraits. From 2017’s Somewhere In Between (Fresh Selects), which chronicled Cook’s desire to balance his two greatest loves, music and his girlfriend, to 2020’s Fire Sign (Nettwerk), which conveyed the Aries-born musician’s newfound sense of love and freedom following his marriage, to 2023’s Who Are You When No One Is Watching? (Nettwerk), which responded to the birth of his first son, Cook has unabashedly shared his life’s joys, challenges and transformations through his music.
Cook’s newest record, Not Everyone Can Go (Nettwerk), is another kaleidoscopic vignette. Created over a turbulent couple of years for Cook, the new record is the rich next chapter in his evolution as innovative musician-to-watch and committed family man.
“It’s capturing where I’m at with this transition from one child to two. You know, that, for us, it was a real one. That was a real jump,” said Cook. “In addition to that, this is the state of affairs in general in my life. I was going through a lot of changes in my team, band members switching in and out, managers, agents, just like a whole shedding process.”
Cook tells this story in his own signature, category-defying style. Throughout Not Everyone Can Go, Cook showcases his Juilliard-trained jazz saxophone chops on spacious, grooving instrumentals improvised in real time with his band, including drummer Nate Smith, pianist Mathias Picard, guitarist Andrew Renfroe and bassist Joshua Crumbly, as well as his skill for writing soul-jazz originals featuring vulnerable lyricism and sultry vocals. Cook’s proximity to trailblazing fusionist Robert Glasper, who he’s toured with, is also palpable.
Not Everyone Can Go began coming together in 2024, during a particularly busy and difficult year for the musician. Cook spent most of it away from his family as he toured throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. Meanwhile, his wife was home with their toddler and pregnant with their second child.
Balancing the demands of his career and his growing family had been a lot to manage for years, but, in 2024, it came to a head. When Cook returned home from tour in November 2024, he was exhausted and frustrated, and it eventually climaxed into a depression.
“It was burnout last year and then I had a couple months of just quiet, but also another baby on the way,” Cook said. “So, it was like, I have to figure this out and make this work, these loves of mine and passions of mine. I know they can work [together]. What does that look like, and who can help me do that?”
Not Everyone Can Go chronicles Cook’s emotional pursuit for the answers to those questions, and it is also his most collaborative project to date. Many of the musicians featured, including vocalists NNAVY and Marie Dahlstrom, producers Bubele and Austin Brown, and bassist Kaveh Ragestar, are artists he met since moving to L.A. in 2020 and signing with independent music company, Kobalt Music, as a music producer and writer.
“I have a rep that sets me up with a lot of sessions ... and I got to meet a bunch of really cool producers in 2024, in between all that touring. I was just driving around L.A., doing sessions, and meeting people and working on the album, and I’ve never done that before. It was a completely new process for me,” he said.
While the story it tells is cohesive, Not Everyone Can Go was recorded over the course of multiple sessions in 2023 and 2024, and some of the songs were written long before the concept for this record was conceived. Cook later sequenced the songs to create the narrative arc, which splits the album into two moods.
The first half, including the bittersweet tune “My Everything,” and the slow, reflective “Harboring Feelings,” highlight Cook’s inner turmoil, and the heavy toll this chaotic time took on his mental health and loved ones. By track seven, “We’ve Come So Far,” driven by bright guitar chords and tender, layered vocals, it’s clear there’s been a breakthrough.
“It wasn’t making sense, so [I’m] having to redefine things to make it fit the life that I’m in,” said Cook. “There is a world where this all works, where we can travel together. We can do longer residencies and travel as a family, where I go out for a couple weeks and come back home and everything can flow nicely.”
The tracks that follow are lighter and more hopeful, as the romance between his wife is rekindled on the sexy-smooth tracks “I Just Want You” and “Bad.” With the driving, uptempo instrumental “Maybe I’m Too Nice,” Cook gets to the heart of the overcommitment that led to burnout.
“Self-betrayal is a real thing. That’s a part of me, the people pleasing part, that I’ve had to actively work on,” said Cook.
The second half of Not Everyone Can Go, particularly the transcendent “All My Life,” shimmers as if the storm has passed — and, for the most part, it has. The musician has shifted his mindset and made a choice to tour less and “move in a different way” when it comes to his music career.
“I got to get to that place where I truly, honestly can be grateful for the blessings that I have, the family that I have, for the things I’ve done and achieved, and not expect or want anything else,” said Cook.
He’s also leaned on the examples of other professional musician-fathers like pianist-composer Jason Moran, who he thinks strikes the balance with grace. Ultimately, Cook hopes to contribute to changing the narrative that says men must choose between being good husbands and fathers and successful musicians.
“I want to do that and I want to be that. ... I mean, Beyonce’s doing it great, and Rihanna,” he said. “But we got to make that cool amongst the dudes.” DB
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