Jack Cooper | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | John Thomas Cooper, Jr. |
Born | Whittier, California, U.S. | May 14, 1963
Origin | La Habra, California, U.S. |
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Occupations |
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Instruments |
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Years active | 1981–present |
Labels | |
Website | |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service | United States Army |
Years of service | 1989–1995 |
Rank | Staff Sergeant |
Unit | USMA Band |
Jack Cooper (born John Thomas Cooper Jr., May 14, 1963) is an American composer, arranger, orchestrator, multireedist, and music educator. He has performed with, written music for and recorded by internationally known pop, jazz, and classical artists.
Cooper has performed with, written music for or recorded by internationally known pop, jazz, and classical artists including Sean Ardoin, Aaron Neville, Marc Secara, Jiggs Whigham, the Berlin Jazz Orchestra, Markus Burger, Lenny Pickett, Joyce Cobb, the BBB featuring Bernie Dresel, Duffy Jackson, Donald Brown, Young Voices Brandenburg, Jimi Tunnell, Christian McBride, the Westchester Jazz Orchestra, the U.S.A.F. Airmen of Note, the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, the Dallas Winds, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Jack Cooper was born in Whittier, California on May 14, 1963; his given birth name passed down from his great-grandfather and father, John Thomas Cooper. [7] He was raised in the nearby, northeastern section of La Habra (remote, Southeastern base of the Puente Hills). [8] He is the younger brother of artist and stylist Cathy Cooper, grandson of H.V. Cooper and also the grandson (x4) of Harriet Byron McAllister [9] [10] His mother, Georgie Cooper, was an accomplished classical pianist; his Godfather Robert Voris was a well known baritone-bass vocal soloist. [11] [12] [13] Cooper's father was an amateur clarinet and sax player who gave Cooper his first instruments. He was first inspired by clarinetist Artie Shaw at age eleven, he soon was taken by Charlie Parker heard from 78's; he learned flute in college. [14] [15] [16]
After graduating from Sonora High School and having first studied with Ernie Del Fante, Cooper attended Fullerton College where he studied composition and arranging with Tom Ranier and saxophone with Dave Edwards and Don Raffell (later studied with Peter Yellin in New York). [17] While at Fullerton College he recorded on the Down Beat award-winning LP, Time Tripping. He later transferred to California State University, Los Angeles where he received a BA in Music education and clarinet in 1987. Cooper also studied jazz composition with composers Bob Curnow and David Caffey. "Since college, when I first began studying big band musical arrangements, (I) wanted to orchestrate for jazz ensembles." [18] Two years later he completed a MA in composition at C.S.U.L.A. and had studied with Byong-Kon Kim, George Heussenstamm and William H. Hill. [19] He has collaborated closely on several professional projects with CSULA classmate Luis Bonilla. [20] Early on in Cooper's life he started experiencing acute Synesthesia/Chromesthesia which would become an important part of his process to composing and arranging music. [18]
Later composition studies were with David Baker, Gerald Wilson, Manny Albam, Karl Korte, and Richard Lawn; in 1999 he earned a DMA in composition from the University of Texas at Austin. [21] [22] [23]
His first notable professional work in Los Angeles as a multireedist was with the Kingsmen, Shari Lewis, Mateos Parseghian, the Tak Shindo Orchestra, Si Zentner, Steve Jam, the Dive, and the Last Mile. [24]
At age 25 (in 1989) Cooper was hired as a saxophonist/woodwind doubler and staff arranger for the United States Army Jazz Knights, a premier musical ensemble of the United States Armed Forces. [25] For 6 years he toured, performed, wrote for and recorded extensively with the West Point Band's musical group to include A&E television appearances at the Hatch Memorial Shell with the Boston Pops, jazz festivals across the Northeastern United States, backing entertainers and jazz artists. [24] He participated in the funeral of former President Richard M. Nixon in April 1994. [26]
While in New York he worked extensively backing entertainers and artists such as Tony Martin, The Lettermen, Clint Holmes, Fred Travalena, Dennis Wolfberg, and worked as arranger and saxophonist with the band Alma Latina. Cooper was introduced by composer Carl Strommen during this time to Columbia Pictures Publishing/Belwin and Warner Bros.; Double Helix was the first of many works published.
Cooper has played woodwind instruments professionally since the 1980s. His work includes backing Jennifer Holliday, Kenny Rogers, Macy Gray, Manhattan Transfer, Glen Campbell, Mitch Ryder (and Detroit Wheels), Chris Stamey and playing woodwinds on national tours for the Producers , Sweet Charity , and A Chorus Line . [24] He has played in saxophone sections for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, the Guy Lombardo Orchestra, the Temptations and on the CD Coming Through Slaughter: The Bolden Legend . [27] [28] [29] He has also been a featured guest artist/soloist at the Western States Jazz Festival, the Birmingham International Jazz and Blues Festival (U.K.), the 45th International Horn Symposium, and the Festival Virtuosi (2007) in Recife, Brazil. [30] [31] [32] [33] Also as a woodwind player, Cooper has been a featured classical artist and soloist with the Hot Springs Festival Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the IRIS Symphony Orchestra, and as a chamber soloist internationally. [34] [35] [36]
Cooper first writing music professionally in the early 1980s. He was first hired in 1992 as a staff arranger for Columbia Pictures Publishing/Belwin; his television and media music writing credits include The Jenny Jones Show , Danish Radio 2 (DR P2), E! Entertainment shows, Access Hollywood , JBVO: Your All Request Cartoon Show , American Restoration , Deal or No Deal , and Extra . [37] [24] His music has been featured at numerous venues around the world to include the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival. [38] He is the musical director, composer and chief arranger for the Jazz Orchestra of the Delta; in 2003 they produced the CD Big Band Reflections of Cole Porter . He also serves as the musical director and chief arranger for Kathy Kosins and her show Rhapsody in Boop. In February 2006 Cooper collaborated with choreographer Mark Godden to produce the ballet Two Jubilees commissioned by and for Ballet Memphis. [24] His musical influence on the ballet gained critical acclaim. [18] [39]
Though his catalogue has a great deal of varied music, his work emphasizes the big band genre. [18] His big band writing has been featured with many groups internationally on the professional and educational levels, "...this style of jazz music (sic) is my wheel house of expertise." [23] [40] Two definitive CDs were recorded in 2014 that exemplify Cooper's adeptness as a jazz orchestra composer and arranger: Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra and Time Within Itself . [41] [42] Both are recognized internationally as exceptional examples of contemporary, progressive big band composition and orchestration. [43] As a staff composer and arranger, he is featured with the BBB featuring Bernie Dresel on their acclaimed 2022 CD The Pugilist . [44] Cooper serves as Composer in Residence with the Southern California based Big Band Jazz Machine. [45]
His Sonata for Trombone was commissioned in 1997 and has been widely performed and recorded by trombone artists including Mark Hetzler, Tom Brantley, Lance Green, Chris Buckholtz, and Michael Davidson (among others). [46] The work is recorded on two highly acclaimed recordings for Centaur Records and Summit Records. Cooper's 2nd Sonata for Trombone was completed in 2018 and recorded on the release Synthesis for SkyDeck Music. The Sonata for Alto Saxophone was commissioned for and first premiered in July 2000 at the 12th World Saxophone Congress in Montreal, Canada. It is described as belonging with "such landmark 'jazz/classical' pieces as the Phil Woods Sonata, on any recital or concert program that explores (both) these worlds." [47] [48]
One of the Missing – for those lost in Iraq for euphonium was commissioned in 2007 and premiered in 2008. [49] It is a protest piece that shows the composer's anti-war stance against the Iraq War; the title is taken from the anti-war/Civil War short story and film adaptation of Ambrose Bierce. [50] The work was also used on the soundtrack of a 2011 Canadian television film broadcast on the Vision network. [51] Cooper's Violin Sonata was premiered on May 27, 2018 as part of the Barnstedter Kapellen Konserte series in Barnstedt, Germany; recording of the work for commercial release was on June 26/27 at Greve Studio in Berlin. [52] [53]
From June 2015 through August 2016 Cooper resided full-time in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough of Berlin, Germany and continues to commute between the U.S. and Germany and makes his home in both Schöneberg, Berlin and Memphis, Tennessee. He serves as a staff arranger, musical director and production assistant for Marc Secara and the Berlin Jazz Orchestra for live performances and recording sessions. [54] [55] He also assisted in arranging for the Collegium musicum Potsdam Symphony Orchestra and the Compass Big Band. [56] [57] [58] Cooper has conducted music and performed in venues such at the Wühlmäuse Theater, Heimathafen Neukölln and Kunstfabrik Schlot. [59] He also served as a Visiting professor and Artist-in-residence at the SRH Hochschule der populären Künste and is currently a visiting professor at the Universität Erfurt. [60] [61] He has worked closely with German jazz, pop and Schlager personalities such as Marc Secara, Jiggs Whigham and Marc Marshall. [62] [63] [64] [65] Since 2018, Cooper has collaborated with German, film documentary director Anne-Kathrin Peitz. He is featured on the award winning The Unanswered Ives documentary and is and also featured on the 2022 television documentary about the life and music of composer Paul Dessau.
Jack Cooper was named the Pearl Wales Professor of Music of the University of Memphis in August or 2020. He was also the 2020 recipient of the University of Memphis CCFA Dean's Creative Achievement Award and the 2010 recipient of the Distinguished Achievement in the Creative Arts Award from the UMAA. [66] He was chosen in 2003 as a nominee for the annual NARAS Premier Player Awards and also was awarded a $10,000 grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Recording Program in 2003. [67] [68] He is also the recipient of numerous ASCAP composer awards since 1996. [69] As a presenter he has been honored as the key-note speaker for the Modern Language Association, scholar and main presenter for four different National Endowment for the Humanities series on American Music, and the Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities. [24]
Cooper has been teaching at the collegiate level for over 25 years, earning the rank of Professor. Before his appointment to the University of Memphis as director of jazz studies in 1998, he had taught privately and worked as a clinician for the U.S. Army Jazz Knights. He has served as an invited clinician, guest artist, and conductor in Recife (Brazil), Birmingham (U.K), Berlin Germany, Graz Austria and Bogotá Colombia. [70] He has also served as guest conductor for the Missouri All-State Collegiate Jazz Orchestra, the Arkansas All-State High School Jazz Ensemble, and the Arizona All-State High School Jazz Ensemble. [71] From September 2016 through March 2020, Cooper served as host of the WUMR radio program The Voice of Jazz which aired on Wednesday nights from 5-6 P.M. CST. [72]
Year | Album | Primary artist producer conductor composer arranger instrumentalist | Type | Label | U.S. | Canada | U.K. | Germany | Review Rating |
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1983 | Time Tripping | instrumentalist | Studio | Trend AM PM | Down Beat 1st Place Winner | ||||
1988 | Monstrosity! | instrumentalist composer | # CSULA 888 | Los Angeles Times | |||||
1994 | Mainstream | arranger | Studio/Live | FC | Down Beat | ||||
1998 | Games | arranger | UNI | Down Beat best CDs of the 1990s | |||||
2003 | Big Band Reflections of Cole Porter | Primary artist producer | Studio | Summit | JazzWeek August 22, 2003 #88 | Jazz Journal very positive | All About Jazz | ||
Upside Out | composer (title track) | Sea Breeze | JazzWeek February 6, 2004 #164 | All Music Guide | |||||
2004 | Memphis Jazz Box | producer instrumentalist composer arranger | Studio/Live | Icehouse | Commercial Appeal | ||||
2009 | Coming Through Slaughter: The Bolden Legend | instrumentalist | Studio | SkyDeck | Exclaim! very positive | Down Beat | |||
2010 | The Chamber Wind Music of Jack Cooper | Primary artist producer | Centaur | Fanfare Magazine very positive | |||||
2014 | Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra | Primary Artist | Planet Arts | JazzWeek October 6, 2014 #59 | Roots Music Report October 26, 2014 #8 | BBC Radio 3 November 1, 2014 playlist choice | Jazz Podium Highly recommended | All About Jazz Chicago Tribune 2014 Top 10 Jazz | |
2015 | Time Within Itself | composer arranger conductor | Origin Records | JazzWeek April 13, 2015 #71 | Jazz Journal | All About Jazz | |||
2015 | Local Color | composer | UNI | All About Jazz | |||||
2015 | Blues, Ballads and Beyond | composer | Summit | Classical Musical Sentinel very positive | All About Jazz | ||||
2016 | I Can Do All Things | composer | JDW Music | Roots Music Report #4 | Amazon 'Vine Voice' | ||||
2018 | Origin Suite | composer arranger conductor | Origin Records | JazzWeek February 26, 2018 #67 | Jazz Journal | All About Jazz | |||
2021 | The Pugilist | arranger | Dig-it Records | JazzWeek March 14, 2022 #23 | DownBeat |
Michael Mantler is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music.
Luis Diego Bonilla is an American jazz trombonist of Costa Rican descent. He is also a producer, composer, and educator.
Raymond Harry "Ray" Brown is an American composer, arranger, trumpet player, and jazz educator. He has performed as trumpet player and arranged music for Stan Kenton, Bill Watrous, Bill Berry, Frank Capp – Nat Pierce, and the Full Faith and Credit Big Band.
The Chamber Wind Music of Jack Cooper is the first classical/new music studio recording featuring numerous performing artists recording chamber wind music of the composer on the Centaur Records label.
Cuban Fire! is an album by Stan Kenton and his orchestra released in 1956 by Capitol Records. This was Stan Kenton's big band's first full-length recording of Afro-Cuban-styled music. The LP charted for four weeks in Billboard starting on September 15, 1956, peaking at #17. The concept of the original 1956 recording centers on the Cuban Fire! suite Kenton had commissioned from composer Johnny Richards. The 1991 CD re-issue is augmented with one extra track from the 1956 sessions and five cuts recorded four years later by the first of Kenton's mellophonium orchestras.
Out Of The Bluffs is a 2009 compact disc by the University of Memphis Southern Comfort Jazz Orchestra recorded in the studio. This was their 2nd CD release since 2007. Since the late 1960s this group has been consistently recognized as one of the top collegiate jazz ensembles in the country recently being invited to the 2011 Jazz Education Network Convention, the 2000 International Association for Jazz Education Convention, and touring Europe in 1998. Musicians from this CD and program won the 2007 University of South Florida Michael Brecker Arranging Competition and others went on to study with Bob Brookmeyer at the New England Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and also work professionally at universities and major symphony orchestras.
Voices is an initial 2007 compact disc by the University of Memphis Southern Comfort Jazz Orchestra recorded in the studio. This was their 1st full-length feature CD release since an LP recording under the direction of Gene Rush in 1987. Since the late 1960s this group has been consistently recognized as one of the top collegiate jazz ensembles in the country recently being invited to the 2011 Jazz Education Network Convention, the 2000 International Association for Jazz Education Convention, and touring Europe in 1998. Musicians from this CD went on to study with Bob Brookmeyer at the New England Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, work professionally, and teach at universities.
"The Memphis Jazz Box" is a 3-CD box set by Memphis jazz artists, first released by Ice House Records in March 2004 and then re-released to the public in 2008. Volume one and two have a combined 24 tracks from a wide variety of artists who were currently working in Memphis during the time the set was produced. The third CD is the Jazz Orchestra of the Delta Big Band Reflections of Cole Porter recorded in 2003 for Summit Records.
Stan Kenton Presents Gabe Baltazar is an album by Gabe Baltazar. It was the last recording by Stan Kenton's Creative World Records label prior to Kenton's death on August 25, 1979. It was also the last of the "Stan Kenton presents..." series of albums ; this recording presents the talent of the alto saxophonist and former Kenton band member Gabe Baltazar. Though never reissued on CD the recording is critically acclaimed and does a good job highlighting the jazz talents of a legendary jazz artist (Baltazar) at the peak of his playing career. He is backed up by a 17 piece big band on most cuts, a string section is added to one track.
Timothy M. Ries is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, band leader, and music educator at the collegiate/conservatory level. Ries is in his eighteenth year as a professor of jazz studies at the University of Toronto. His universe of work as composer, arranger, and instrumentalist ranges from rock to jazz to classical to experimental to ethno to fusions of respective genres thereof. His notable works with wide popularity include The Rolling Stones Project, a culmination of jazz arrangements of music by the Rolling Stones produced on two albums, the first in 2005 and the second in 2008.
Mists: Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra is a jazz album produced by Planet Arts Recordings and released in August 2014. The recording is centered on Charles Ives' art song arranged for 17-piece jazz orchestra by composer Jack Cooper; this is a Third stream approach to jazz made more widely known by earlier band leaders and composers such as Paul Whiteman, Gunther Schuller, George Russell and Don Sebesky. The album is archived in both the United States Library of Congress and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek as a historically significant sound recording.
Time Within Itself is a big band jazz album produced by Origin Records and released March 17, 2015. The concept for the recording came from the idea of a high level feature CD showcasing the Michael Waldrop Big Band. Most notably, music critic Jack Bowers gave the recording 4 and a half of 5 stars and notes, "...Waldrop's first visit to a recording studio with his own big band was worth the wait."
The Berlin Jazz Orchestra is a 17 piece concert jazz orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. The orchestra has been critically acclaimed by prominent periodicals such as the Berliner Tagesspiegel, Märkische Allgemeine, Jazzpodium, All About Jazz and Jazzthetik.
You're Everything is a jazz album produced by Schoener Hören Records and Kulturradio, it was officially released in March 2008. The album was critically acclaimed by Jazz Podium magazine as the second recording for the Berlin Jazz Orchestra with vocal artist Marc Secara. Jazz artist Jiggs Whigham is featured on this release as both instrumentalist (trombone) and musical director.
Strangers in the Night - The Music of Bert Kaempfert is the Berlin Jazz Orchestra's first home video, released on DVD September 21, 2012 by Polydor/Universal Entertainment. The DVD is a live recording from the Alte Oper on February 12, 2008 in Frankfurt, Germany.
Update is a jazz album produced by 44 Records and producer Jacky Wagner, released in 2004. The album was critically acclaimed by Jazz Podium magazine as the first initial recording for the Berlin Jazz Orchestra with vocal artist Marc Secara. Jazz artist Jiggs Whigham is featured on this release as both instrumentalist (trombone) and musical director and Steve Gray's arrangements are featured on this recording.
Marc Secara is a German singer and recording artist known for jazz, American pop music, and German popular repertoire. He is also a member of the German singing group the Berlin Voices.
Jack Cooper's Sonata for Trombone was published in 2007, the date of composition is 1998. It has become a widely performed work in the modern trombone repertoire and is featured on two highly acclaimed recordings with Centaur Records and Summit Records. Most notably the work features improvisation sections and a wide range of stylistic interpretation. The Sonata is Cooper's first of three chamber solo works for trombone; two Sonatas for tenor trombone and one for bass trombone.
Origin Suite is the second jazz album by Michael Waldrop, produced by award-winning Seattle, Washington-based label Origin Records and released January 3, 2018. The CD idea is a high level, eclectic mix of works showcasing Michael Waldrop. Specifically, the Origin Suite was composed for this CD as a tour de force to showcase Waldrop. Most notably the CD received 4 of 5 stars by music critic and author Brian Morton in the April 2018 edition of Jazz Journal from London.
Songs of Berlin is an album by Marc Secara and the Berlin Jazz Orchestra, released digitally worldwide in October 2021 on GAM Records. The album features trombonist Jiggs Whigham and was arranged and conducted by Jack Cooper.