COOCOOHANDLER: About the Band

About the Band

The Band

is (L to R):

Matt Hausmann - percussionist, sculptor, installation artist
David Yearwood - multi-instrumentalist, composer, costume designer
Tom Burnett - performer, musician, writer, poet
Paul Braucher - guitarist, writer, painter

Not pictured above:

Michael Leonhart - trumpet, percussion
Elliot Levin - saxophone, flute
Carolyn Leonhart - vocals

COOCOOHANDLER is a name that was penned by author James Joyce in Finnegan's Wake to describe the character Earwick. Since its inception in 1994, COOCOOHANDLER the band has performed its own brand of Post-Freudian Jazz-Punk Cabaret, ranging freely between chamber music and Freak show.

Head shot

Matt Hausmann

(Drums) Matt is a sculptor, designer, and builder in addition to being a musician. His set designs have been featured in many off-Broadway productions and his sculptures are in numerous private collections and traveling exhibitions throughout the U.S. As a master carpenter he is able to build anything from chairs to bridges-thus his current role as COOCOOHANDLER set designer/builder and director of continuity. When not in the theater or studio Matt enjoys the outdoors....fishing, camping, and just standing still.

(Bass) David is the primary composer and costume designer for COOCOOHANDLER. After years of traditional and classical training in string bass performance David made his first full-out excursion into performance art on the streets of New York City in 1993. Shortly thereafter he teamed up with lifelong friend and collaborator, Matt Hausmann, for a series of performances at the Cucaracha Theatre in Manhattan. These performances were radical experiments in combining music and improvisation with a comically arresting style of performance art. From there the personnel of experimenters steadily grew into the current line up of COOCOOHANDLER. While David currently applies his musical, conceptual, and managerial creativity to COOCOOHANDLER he also lives as an instructor of Iyenger Yoga and as a teacher of music and theatre through COOCOOHANDLER's educational programs.

David Yearwood

Tom Burnett

(Piano, Keyboards) Tom joined COOCOOHANDLER in 1995, lending his directorial, writing, and performing skills to the ensemble. Has composed original music for countless theatre and dance performances at venues including the Kitchen, American Place Theatre, and Lake Placid Center for the Performing Arts. His music has been heard on WBAI and WKCR radio. Has also presented original poetry performance and music at many NY venues including Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, St. Marks, Knitting Factory, and the Kitchen. In Chicago he has appeared often at the Green Mill. He was featured with Pharaoh Sanders and the Guggenheim Museum in a National Television campaign sponsored by the Cultural Alliance to Support Arts in America. He has worked as an actor and director, staging off-Broadway productions as well as large-scale musicals. Tom has taught in arts and education programs in NYC for over 15 years and coordinates COOCOOHANDLER's education programs.

(Guitar) Born in Chicago, Illinois, Paul comes from a musical family-his grandfather taught violin and played in the Chicago Lyric Opera orchestra, his mother taught piano, and his father played trumpet. Paul’s early interest in both music and the visual arts eventually led him to take up the guitar and to study formal painting at Knox College (B.A. 1981) and, later, Queens College (MFA 1986). He has taught art as a visiting artist at Pratt Institute and Knox College and has given solo-exhibitions of his paintings at the Contemporary Realist/Hacket-Friedman Gallery, San Francisco, in 1989 and 1996. He has been a member of COOCOOHANDLER since it’s inception and is it’s master set painter and head of scheduling and accounting.

Paul Braucher

Michael Leonhart

(Trumpet) Michael joined COOCOOHANDLER at the Box Game in 1995. He grew up surrounded by music at home. Michael went to the High School for the performing Arts in NYC but cites his family as his biggest inspiration. He has won over thirty international awards in performance and composition, including a Grammy in 1992. In addition to recording twenty-three albums with other artists including Steely Dan and Nana Vasconcelos, he has recorded two CDs for Sunnyside, the current Glub Glub vol. 11 and Aardvark Poses.

(Saxes, Flutes) Elliot joined COOCOOHANDLER in 1996. He has been performing music and poetry in New York (and native Philadelphia) as well as the rest of the world for over twenty years. He has toured with Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, Cecil Taylor Ensemble, COOCOOHANDLER, and his own band New Ghost. He has recorded original poetry and music with Olduvia, Iltar, Interplay, New Ghost, Jackson Krall Ensemble, and Cecil Taylor Ensemble. He has also published his own book of poetry does it swing? (on Heat Press). CDs on C.I.M.P.: Elliott Levin 4-Tet The Motion of Emotion; with Tyrone Hill 4-Tet A Fine Intensity; and soon to be released Vol. 2 On F.M.P. Cecil Taylor Ensemble (Live in Berlin), On Eremite-Alan Silva Visions Orch. Elliot recently appeared at Crossing Borders Fest, Hague, Netherlands (with Frank Messina & Spoken Motion); Sexial Jazz Fest, Lisbon, Portugal (with Odean Popes Sax Choir); and Alternativa Fest, Prague, Czech Republic (with New Ghost).

Elliot Levin

Carolyn Leonhart

(Vocals) COOCOOHANDLER's newest member, Carolyn sang with Steely Dan on their 1996 world tour. She was one of three finalist in the 1994 Thelonious Monk Jazz vocal competition. Carolyn maintains a busy schedule of performance and commercial recording in NYC. She is featured on the current Steely Dan CD Two Against Nature and on their present world tour. Her solo Album Steal the Moon featuring Rob Bargad will be released on Sunnyside records in June 2000. She gains great happiness from her pet gargoyle, Dido.

[ Home | Sign Guestbook | Contact COOCOOHANDLER ]