Cook

Emory Cook (1913-2002) was an audio engineer and inventor who used his "Sounds of our Times" and "Cook" record labels to demonstrate his philosophy about sound, his recording equipment, and his manufacturing techniques. From 1952 to 1966, Cook recorded, manufactured, and distributed some of the highest quality audio recordings in the world. The 140 titles on Cook Records include European and American concert music, U.S. and Caribbean popular and traditional music, as well as mechanical and natural sounds.

Emory Cook ran two divisions of the Cook company, Cook US and Cook Trinidad. Most of the albums recorded in Trinidad were made available on Cook US, though there were some that weren't. The two divisions had vastly different singles discographies - both in numbering and in content. Cook US singles were almost exclusively to promote albums, whereas Cook Trinidad singles were frequently standalone tracks that did not appear on albums.

Emory Cook sold Cook Trinidad in the early 1980s. He donated Cook US to the Smithsonian Institution in 1990. Because of this, the institution's record company Smithsonian Folkways were able to reissue the releases that were released on Cook US, but are unable to do so with the ones only released in Trinidad. This means there are a lot of releases that have yet to be documented.