Unplugged: Dennis Cook and Matt Richard

The Marion Art Center welcomes Dennis Cook and Matt Richard to the Unplugged series on September 25. There will be two separate performances during the night, and each set will last about an hour. Find a spot at a cabaret table upstairs at the MAC’s Patsy Francis Gallery to listen to a mix of jazz standards and original compositions by both artists. Guests will enjoy a refreshing setting at this “unplugged” performance featuring mainly acoustic sound, without the volume and density often experienced during larger concerts.

The first seating is at 7:00 pm and the second seating is at 8:30 pm. Tickets are $15 for MAC members and $20 for nonmembers — more information and tickets at marionartcenter.org/events.

Jazz musician and educator Dennis Cook, a native of Mansfield, Massachusetts, graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1977 and studied with Joe Viola and Jerry Bergonzi. Cook’s most profound musical influences have been Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon. Cook has toured with Dick Johnson and the Artie Shaw Orchestra, Buddy Morrow and Terry Myers, and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. He has performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Carol Channing, Pat Cooper, Julius LaRosa, Regis Philbin, Bobby Rydell, Connie Francis, Don Rickles and many others.

Matt Richard (jazz musician, accompanist, composer and arranger) has appeared on the Marion Art Center Jazz Unplugged series since 2023 with Donn Legge, Dave Zinno, Daniel Ian Smith, Mike Rocha, Dino Govoni, and Paul Del Nero. Matt arranges a variety of music for the Buttonwood Brass Trio, the Southcoast Brass Band, and the Buzzards Bay Jazz Ensemble. Matt has performed throughout the New England area for the past 40 years as a soloist and accompanist with many different ensembles and musicians, including Sheila Jordan, Dick Johnson and the Artie Shaw Orchestra, and Bombay Jim Porcella and the Swingin’ Sapphires. Matt played solo piano at The Roadhouse Cafe in Hyannis, Massachusetts, from 1997–2008 as well as joining Lou Colombo and Dick Johnson on the famous Monday Night Jazz Series from 2002–2008.