A Detroit, Michigan … Read Full Bio ↴Carla Cook is a Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist.
A Detroit, Michigan native, music seized hold of Cook at an early age. As a student at Cass Technical High School she played string bass in the school orchestra, studied piano and voice on weekends, and sang in her church’s choir. An elder brother introduced her to jazz, Cook chose voice as her instrument of choice, and she became a disciple of jazz icon Eddie Jefferson, founder of a singing technique called ‘vocalese’ where a singer sings lyrics to a famous instrumental solo. During this time she and close friend Regina Carter formed dreams of becoming jazz musicians; Cook as a singer, and Carter as a violinist. At Carter’s urging she applied to and was accepted by Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. While at Northeastern she remained in close contact with Carter (who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music and met Cyrus Chestnut, a jazz pianist studying at nearby Berklee School of Music. After graduating from Northeastern in 1985 Cook remained in Boston preparing herself for a career singing jazz in New York. In February of 1990 she moved to New York and supported herself as a school teacher and book seller during the day, and singing at night. After five years she traveled to Europe and from 1993-1994 Cook served as a guest vocal and ensemble instructor at the Jazzschule in Basel, Switzerland, and Jazz and Rock Schule in Freiburg, Germany. She returned to New York two years later and her work included singing with Lionel Hampton’s Orchestra and George Gee’s Make Believe Ballroom Orchestra. In 1998 she signed with MaxJazz, a fledgling music label, and that year she released her first CD, ‘It’s All About Love’, to great acclaim, including a best jazz vocal Grammy nomination. Her second CD, ‘Dem Bones’ (a tribute to all the trombone players she’d worked with in the Lionel Hampton and George Gee groups), released in 2001, was also a success, and received a glowing review from Down Beat magazine, the leading jazz publication. In 2002 she released her CD ‘Simply Natural’, which was inspired by her love for the beauty found in nature.
Cook performs globally both with her own groups, most notably 'the Carla Cook Quintet', and as a guest soloist with artists including Eric Reed and old friends Regina Carter and Cyrus Chestnut (both of whom have become young luminaries in the jazz world). Her eclectic venues include the digital realm as she is featured as a character in the Sony Playstation game, ‘Parappa the Rapper II’, and she has said that it is a dream of hers to appear with her favorite characters on Sesame Street.
You Don't Know What Love Is
Carla Cook Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
'Til you've learned the meaning of the blues
Until you've loved a love you've had to lose,
You don't know what love is.
You don't know how lips hurt
Until you've kissed and had to pay the cost,
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost,
Do you know how a lost heart fears
At the thought of reminiscing,
And how lips that taste of tears
Lose their taste for kissing?
You don't know how hearts burn
For love that can, not live yet never dies.
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes,
You don't know what love is.
Carla Cook's "You Don't Know What Love Is" is a soulful interpretation of the jazz standard originally written by Gene De Paul and Don Raye in 1941. The song's powerful lyrics evoke the raw emotions that come with the pain and heartbreak of lost love. The first verse speaks to the notion that one cannot truly understand the concept of love until they have experienced the devastation of losing it. The blues, a genre of music that often speaks to feelings of sadness and longing, is used as a metaphor for the depth of emotion associated with love.
The second verse delves deeper into the physical and emotional toll of heartbreak. Lips, which are often associated with passion and desire, are described as hurting and costing the singer something. The line "flipped your heart" suggests the turmoil and confusion that comes with losing love. The third verse speaks to the lingering pain and how it can affect the ability to move on. Memories of lost love can cause fear and make it impossible to enjoy the things that were once pleasurable, such as kissing. Additionally, the last lines of the verse highlight the intense longing and yearning that comes with enduring a love that can never be resurrected. The lyric "Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes" resonates with anyone who has felt the pain of losing someone they truly loved.
Overall, Carla Cook's rendition of "You Don't Know What Love Is" is a deeply moving and insightful interpretation of a classic jazz standard. The lyrics speak to the raw emotions that come with heartbreak, and Cook's soulful delivery adds an extra layer of depth to the piece.
Line by Line Meaning
You don't know what love is
You cannot comprehend the true meaning of love
'Til you've learned the meaning of the blues
Until you have experienced sadness and heartbreak, you can't understand what love entails
Until you've loved a love you've had to lose
Unless you have loved someone deeply and lost them, you'll never know the true depth of love
You don't know how lips hurt
You can't fathom how painful it is to kiss someone and then suffer the consequences later
Until you've kissed and had to pay the cost
Until you have experienced the negative repercussions of a kiss, you cannot fully comprehend the consequences of love
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost
Unless you've lost someone you love deeply, you cannot understand the magnitude of love
You don't know how hearts burn
You can't understand how much agony the heart endures
For love that can not live yet never dies
Love can be eternal even when it can't be realized
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes
Unless you have stayed up all night thinking about someone, you cannot fathom what love feels like
Do you know how a lost heart fears
Have you ever experienced the fear and sadness of losing someone you love?
At the thought of reminiscing
When you remember good times with someone you lost, does it evoke fear?
And how lips that taste of tears
Do you remember the taste of tears when you were heartbroken?
Lose their taste for kissing?
Does heartbreak make it harder to enjoy intimate moments with someone new?
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DON RAYE, GENE DE PAUL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind