Joy of Cooking was an American

music ensemble A musical ensemble, also known as a music group, musical group, or a band is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrume ...

formed in 1967 in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

. Associated with the hippie culture, the band's music combined

rock & roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

with

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

, and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

. The band released three studio albums on

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

in the early 1970s as well as a minor hit single in 1971, "Brownsville". Led by guitarist Terry Garthwaite and pianist Toni Brown, who both shared lead vocals, Joy of Cooking was a rare example of a rock band fronted by women.

Career

Joy of Cooking was led by pianist Toni Brown (1938–2022) and guitarist Terry Garthwaite. The rest of the band comprised bass guitarist David Garthwaite (Terry's brother), drummer Fritz Kasten, and percussion player Ron Wilson. Keyboard player Stevie Roseman replaced Toni Brown for a time. Bass players Happy Smith and eventually Jeff Neighbor replaced David Garthwaite on bass guitar and Glen Frendel was added on lead guitar. The band's music was a mix of

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

sensibilities with rock, blues, folk, and jazz, and the lyrics often reflected

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

themes.

Discography

Joy of Cooking

issued three albums by Joy of Cooking in the early 1970s and an anthology disc in 1993. *''

Joy of Cooking ''Joy of Cooking'', often known as "''The Joy of Cooking''", is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 by ...

'' (1971) *''Closer to the Ground'' (1971) *''Castles'' (1972) *''American Originals'' est(1993) A fourth album, ''Same Old Song And Dance'' (1973), was never released, although certain songs were included on ''American Originals''. A Capitol Records cassette-only release from 1990, ''Best Of Joy Of Cooking'', features a cover of the 1924 Ma Rainey song "Walkin' Blues" that is unavailable elsewhere. Capitol also issued a

7-inch single In music, a single is a type of release of a song recording of fewer tracks than an album ( LP), typically one or two tracks. A single can be released for sale to the public in a variety of physical or digital formats. Singles may be standa ...

of the song "Brownsville" (with B-side "Only Time Will Tell Me") in 1971. The single release was a 2:25 edit of the 5:50 album cut that altered the title from "Brownsville/Mockingbird" to "Brownsville" and did not contain the "Mockingbird" segment that closes the song. "Brownsville" reached number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Joy Of Cooking's only hit single. A compilation of previously unreleased tracks, ''Back to Your Heart'', was issued on the independent NJOY label in 2007. The double-CD album includes a set of

live music A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...

, the first such release by the band. In 2016, a triple CD live album was released on Shady Grove, ''Curiosities From The San Francisco Underground Volume One''. Disc 1 was by Joy of Cooking, Disc 2 by

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

and Disc 3 by

It's A Beautiful Day It's a Beautiful Day is an American band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1967, featuring vocalist Pattie Santos along with violinist David LaFlamme and his wife, Linda LaFlamme, on keyboards. David LaFlamme, who as a youth had once p ...

. All live tracks were previously unreleased.

Toni & Terry

Garthwaite and Brown each had solo careers after Joy of Cooking disbanded, but they also worked together again as a duo named Toni & Terry. Their album, ''Cross Country'', was issued by Capitol in 1973, followed by ''The Joy'' in 1977.

Terry Garthwaite

Garthwaite refocused herself on jazz music and in 1975, released her first solo album, ''Terry''. The album was produced by

David Rubinson David Rubinson (born August 7, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York)Internet Movie DatabaseMini-Biography of David Rubinson Retrieved 2012-06-05.as of 2017 it's 1962? is an American recording engineer and music producer, who was particularly involved in music ...

and engineered by Fred Catero for

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

, and features accompaniment by numerous jazz artists of contemporaneous or future fame:

Howard Roberts Howard Mancel Roberts (October 2, 1929 – June 28, 1992) was an American jazz guitarist, educator, and session musician. Early life Roberts was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Damon and Vesta Roberts, and began playing guitar at the age of 8 — a ...

and

Wah-Wah Watson Melvin M. Ragin (December 8, 1950 – October 24, 2018), known professionally as Wah Wah Watson, was an American guitarist who was a member of the Funk Brothers, the studio band for Motown Records. He also worked extensively as a session musician ...

on guitar;

Chuck Domanico Charles Louis Domanico (January 20, 1944 – October 17, 2002) was an American jazz bassist who played double bass and bass guitar on the West Coast jazz scene. Domanico was born in Chicago. He settled in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. For ...

and

Willie Weeks Willie Weeks (born August 5, 1947) is an American bass guitarist. He has gained fame performing with famous musicians in a wide variety of genres. He has been one of the most in-demand session musicians throughout his career. Weeks has also ga ...

on bass;

Sonny Burke Joseph Francis "Sonny" Burke (March 22, 1914 – May 31, 1980) was an American musical arranger, composer, Big Band leader and producer. Early life and career Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania to Francis P. Burke and Rhoda Nihany, Burke grew up in D ...

Roger Kellaway Roger Kellaway (born November 1, 1939) is an American composer, arranger and jazz pianist who has recorded over 250 albums, and composed over 20 film scores Life and career Kellaway was born in Waban, Massachusetts, United States. He is an alum ...

, and

Patrice Rushen Patrice Louise Rushen (born September 30, 1954) is an American jazz pianist, R&B singer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and music director. At the 25th Annual Grammy Awards, her 1982 single, "Forget Me Nots", received a no ...

on keyboards; and Philip Smith on saxophone. Drums and percussion were played by Harvey Mason, Sr.,

John Guerin John Payne Guerin (October 31, 1939 – January 5, 2004) was an American percussionist. He was a proponent of the jazz-rock style. Biography Guerin was born in Hawaii and raised in San Diego. As a young drummer, he began performing with Buddy ...

Scott Mathews Scott Mathews (born July 25, 1955) is an American music producer, composer, performer, and entrepreneur. He has appeared as a musician, songwriter or producer on recordings with sales of more than 50 million units which earned more than 30 gol ...

James Gadson James Edward Gadson (born June 17, 1939) is an American drummer and session musician. Beginning his career in the late 1960s, Gadson has since become one of the most-recorded drummers in the history of R&B. He is also a singer and songwriter. ...

, and Bill Summers, and special guest vocals were contributed by

The Valentinos The Valentinos (also known as The Womack Brothers) was an American family R&B group from Cleveland, Ohio, best known for launching the careers of brothers Bobby Womack and Cecil Womack. Bobby went on to find greater fame as a solo artist whil ...

and

Bobby Womack Robert Dwayne Womack ( ; March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's ...

. In 1976 Garthwaite was featured on a 45 rpm direct-to-disc audiophile jazz recording titled San Francisco Ltd. that received a limited release. In later years, Garthwaite recorded several more albums for independent labels including ''Hand in Glove'' (1979), ''Moving Day'' (1985), and ''Sacred Circles'' (2000). Garthwaite recorded ''Live at the Great American Music Hall'' in 1980 (released 1981 by

Flying Fish Records Flying Fish Records was a record label founded in Chicago in 1974 that specialized in folk, blues, and country music. In the 1990s the label was sold to Rounder Records. Bruce Kaplan, the label's founder, was a native of Chicago and the son of ...

) with Rosalie Sorrels and monologuist Bobbie Louise Hawkins. The three artists sat on stage together and took turns performing, selecting material responsive to the prior performance. Garthwaite contributed four of the 13 tracks.

Toni Brown

Remaining close to the Joy of Cooking sound, Brown released her first solo album, ''Good For You, Too'', on

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc. established in 1972, though MCA had released recordings under that name in the UK from the 1960s. The label achieved success in the 1970s through the 1980s, often by acquiring other ...

in 1973; it was released in the US in the following year along with a 7-inch single, "Big Trout River". She continued collaborating with Garthwaite as well as released a second solo album, ''Toni Brown'' (1979) on

Fantasy Records Fantasy Records is an American independent record label company founded by brothers Max and Sol Stanley Weiss in 1949. The early years of the company were dedicated to issuing recordings by jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, who was also one of its inves ...

before changing careers. (Her discography is sometimes mistakenly conflated with that of former ''Relix'' magazine editor Toni Brown, who released numerous independent albums in a similar country-folk-rock vein in the 1990s and 2000s.) Brown earned a master's degree in clinical psychology and in 1991 founded Four Winds West, a non-profit transitional house for disadvantaged youth in

Fairfax, California Fairfax is an List of cities in California, incorporated town in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States. Fairfax is located west-northwest of San Rafael, California, San Rafael, at an elevation of . The population w ...

. Brown died on August 8, 2022, at her home in Woodacre, California.

References

External links

Joy of Cooking official website

Terry Garthwaite website

Toni Brown website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joy of Cooking Okeh Records artists Capitol Records artists Musical groups from Berkeley, California 1967 establishments in California Musical groups established in 1967 American rock and roll music groups