David Weiss

David Weiss is a New York trumpeter, composer, and bandleader best known for founding The Cookers, the ensemble he built to spotlight veteran musicians he felt had been unjustly overlooked. Born in New York City in 1964, he studied at North Texas State University before returning home to work with elders such as Jaki Byard, Frank Foster, and Jimmy Heath, and to study privately with trumpeters Tommy Turrentine and Bill Hardman. In 1996 he formed the New Jazz Composers Octet as a vehicle for a younger generation of writers, and he released his first album as a leader, Breathing Room, in 2002. Across his career he has toured and recorded alongside figures including Freddie Hubbard, Charles Tolliver, Bobby Hutcherson, and Slide Hampton, work that grounded him in the modern mainstream tradition. As a bandleader he also directs projects such as Endangered Species and Point of Departure, extending his role as a curator and historian of the music.