British jazz drummer, programmer and sampler "Brookie" (real name: Paul Brook) played with Pzazz, Red on Red, among many others. On Thursday the 3rd of May 2007 Paul Brooke passed away. He had been very ill for some time with cancer.



History:

Paul Brook started playing drums around 1977 on an old Olympic kit. Having upgraded via Maxwin to a Hayman kit, he began by touring abroad with covers bands, before playing in the backing bands for Percy Sledge and later the Marvelettes.



During this time, he was very passionate about fusion, his favourite drummers being Billy Cobham and Bill Bruford. Brook joined a Jazz-rock band in 1980 called Pzazz and made an album and toured extensively, including two tours with Level 42.



From there, Brook joined a band called Mummy Calls, who were signed for a ridiculous amount of money to Geffen records in 1984, and made a record with Hugh Padgham producing. The band dissolved the following year and Paul Brooke co-wrote the track Beauty Has Her Way which appeared on “The Lost Boys” soundtrack.



In the years from ’85 to ’92 Paul Brook divided his time between session drumming and programming, working with and for diverse artists including Nick Kershaw, Gary Moore, Greg Lake, Bonnie Tyler, Pino Palladino, Dream Academy, Coldcut, Danny Thompson, etc.



In 1992, Paul Brook created the world’s first realistic drum sample cd “Masterkit” which was soon followed by “Masterkit 2”. Soon afterwards, he was approached by Yamaha to create a custom drum library, which appeared on their products over the next few years. Later sample cd’s included “Chemical Beats” (one of Zero-G’s top sellers ever) and latterly “Brutal Beats” (featuring Geoff Dugmore).



From 1996 onwards, Paul Brook got seriously into percussion and Jazz where he did gigs at the Montreux Jazz Festival and Ronnie Scott’s.



Up until the end of 2006, Paul Brooke was working with Coldcut and running his private teaching practice, and lecture in sequencing & production at Mid-Warwickshire college.