welcome!
Cooke Harvey
Cooke has been playing bass since high school and has
been in a variety of musical situations.
During his last two years in college, Cooke played with well known vibraphonist Arthur Lipner in a jazz trio and was a founding member with Rob Sparre of Centerpeace, a local fusion band in Delaware.
In the 80s, he co-founded Home Cookin, a local wedding/party band that helped pay the bills and fill in the classic rock and Motown repertoire. Various stints with friends, as in The Trauma Unit and Fatfinger, allowed Cooke to play original music.
A year later, 2003, found Cooke as the pulse of the tight rhythm section of Big Package, a 10-piece funk band playing in Delaware and Pennsylvania. In 2004 while mixing sound at The Point, Cooke met Kate Gaffney, an energetic young songwriter. Kate hired Cooke in 2005 to play in support of her debut CD release, “Highways.” Since then, Cooke recorded with the Kate Gaffney Band on the well-received, follow-up release, “The New Then.”
Cooke also experienced new musical challenges in a duo with veteran of the music business, Lili Añel. Her music combined a variety of styles to present a bass player's dreams—to accompany, solo, orchestrate and groove. He co-produced her 3rd CD "Dream Again" in 2006 which received a very complementary review in Jazz Times.
For more info: www.cookeharvey.com
Rob Sparre
After writing a mostly original music show to raise money for his high school yearbook back in 1973, Rob decided to major in music on trumpet. Playing in numerous horn bands through the 70's, the draw of keyboards and composition were too tempting, and Rob switched to writing and playing original jazz fusion in a local band Centrepeace in the early 1980's.
Joining bassist Cooke Harvey for both the high school yearbook concert and then Centrepeace after college, it seems only natural that Rob join Cooke once again in The Big Package Band over 20 years later. With his punch of organ and clavinet for those Tower of Power and Stevie Wonder tunes, Rob provides the rhythm section with a little extra funkification to complete the package.
The opportunity to re-combine in füsionhouse was natural. Never satisified, Rob is also working with Cooke on a contemporary beat/synth approach to classic jazz and rock standards. You can download some of Rob's original music at www.sparre.us.
Dave Bozenhard
After a year of playing air guitar to Jimi Hendrix and U2 records Dave began playing the electric guitar at the age of 14. Like many budding guitarists the first few years of playing were very influenced by blues and rock and roll; Hendrix, Page, and Vaughan were all critical influences.
After six years of being a 'self-taught' player Dave began to study music theory 'with a jazz leaning' with guitarist Tony Janflone, sr., of Washington, PA. This led to a broadening of interest in many musical styles that included the guitar, most notably jazz and jazz fusion, and four years later Dave enrolled as a music major at the University of Delaware with a concentration on classical guitar performance. At Delaware Dave studied classical guitar with Christian Taggart and jazz guitar with Tony Ventura, and participated in the University jazz bands, early music ensemble, and many different chamber music configurations.
Since graduating Dave has worked with flutist Jennifer Janson in a classical chamber music ensemble, West Chester based group One Alternative, Delaware based 'Big Package Band', singer-songwriters Lili Anel and Darren Keith, and several other area bands playing styles that include blues, jazz, funk, rock and swing.
Jonathan W. Whitney
Jonathan W. Whitney is a graduate of the University of Delaware, with a bachelor’s degree in music education-percussion concentration. Mr. Whitney has a very diverse musical background, in both performance and education. During his final years at the University of Delaware as well as several years following his graduation, he worked closely with jazz legend Donald Byrd.
He marched for 6 years in the snare line of Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps, and taught the cymbal line for 2 additional years. Mr. Whitney has also done much work arranging percussion parts and teaching numerous high school and college marching bands including Brandywine High School, Towson University, and Shepherd University.
Jonathan currently teaches middle and upper school instrumental music at the Tatnall School in Wilmington, Delaware, as well as performing publicly with a variety ensembles music of the classical, jazz, rock, pop and gospel genres.