Mike Cooper (musician)

Last updated

Mike Cooper
Birth nameMichael Cooper
Born (1942-08-24) 24 August 1942 (age 81)
Reading, Berkshire, England
Genres Country blues
Jazz
Experimental
Hawaiian music
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter
Instrument(s)Guitar, vocals
Years active1962–present
Labels Pye, Dawn, Hipshot, etc.
Website www.cooparia.com

Michael Cooper (born 24 August 1942) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Initially coming to attention as a country blues performer, his later work also straddles jazz, Polynesian, ambient, and various experimental and improvisational styles.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Mike Cooper was born in Reading, Berkshire. After spending several years as a child in Australia, [1] he returned to England. He started playing guitar after leaving school aged 16, and became involved in local skiffle groups. Having spent time at local jazz clubs, in 1961 he saw Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee play with Terry Lightfoot, and harmonica player James Cotton playing with Chris Barber's band at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival. Inspired by Alexis Korner, he formed an R&B band, the Blues Committee, in which he was the lead singer. [1] The band supported visiting blues musicians including John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, and Sonny Boy Williamson. With changes in line-up, from 1964 the Blues Committee diversified into modern jazz as well as R&B. [2]

Cooper also played as a solo act in folk clubs around Reading, performing country blues and folk music, [2] After meeting such musicians as Martin Carthy, Leon Rosselson and Don Partridge, he began playing in London clubs, and appeared briefly as a guitar player in the 1963 film That Kind of Girl . He bought a 1932 National resophonic guitar, and learned to play Blind Boy Fuller's repertoire of songs, gradually acquiring his own style and learning to play lap steel guitar with a miniature whiskey bottle. [3]

Early career

In 1965 Cooper turned professional, and played regular gigs in and around Reading. He met virtuoso guitarist Derek Hall, and they established a shared residency at the Shades coffee house in Reading, hosting visiting artists such as John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, Davey Graham, Al Stewart and others. With Hall, Cooper recorded a limited edition EP, Out of the Shades, on the local Kennet record label, comprising a mixture of country blues and other tunes. After Hall moved away, Cooper teamed up with harmonica player Jerry Kingett and recorded an unreleased album in the Netherlands. Cooper continued to perform as a solo act, touring widely in the UK and Europe. In 1968, he recorded another EP, Up the Country Blues, for the Saydisc label in Bristol, with liner notes by his friend Ian A. Anderson. [4] Cooper and Anderson appeared, with fellow acoustic blues musicians Jo Ann and Dave Kelly, on the album Blues Like Showers of Rain, and Cooper and Anderson also shared the LP The Inverted World, both albums released on the Matchbox label. [2] [3]

Cooper continued to develop his playing style, and performed around Britain in clubs and at festivals. In 1968 he signed a recording contract offered by record producer Peter Eden at Pye Records, and at the end of the year recorded the album Oh Really!?. Apart from one song each by Blind Boy Fuller and Son House, all the tracks were written by Cooper. The album was performed as acoustic blues, with Cooper heavily influenced by Mississippi Fred McDowell, with whom he performed. [3]

Increasingly Cooper developed his own eclectic approach following his exposure to a wider range of music, especially jazz, at festivals where he performed. His second album, Do I Know You?, on Pye's subsidiary Dawn label, featured the bass playing of jazz musician Harry Miller, as well as field recordings, and was followed by his 1970 album Trout Steel, featuring a wider range of musicians including Mike Osborne, Alan Skidmore and John Taylor, as well as Harry Miller, Stefan Grossman, and the folk-rock band Heron. [3] The album is considered "one of his most enduring and influential recordings." [2]

His next album, Places I Know, was originally intended as a double album, with one LP of blues recordings and the other covering jazz and rock, but was released as a single album credited to Mike Cooper with the Machine Gun Co. and Michael Gibbs. In 1972, he released The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper, a band album on which the other members were Geoff Hawkins (saxophone), Alan Cook (keyboards), Les Calvert (bass) and Tim Richardson (percussion). He was encouraged by music executive Tony Hall to make what became his final album of the decade, Life & Death in Paradise. [1] It was released in 1974 and featured drummer Louis Moholo. [3] In 1977, two of his tracks were included on Stefan Grossman's album Country Blues Guitar Festival which also featured Son House and Jo Ann Kelly. [3]

Stylistic diversification and later career

Cooper continued to perform and tour in the UK and Europe, often collaborating with jazz musicians. He later said of the period, "I left behind the safe shores of melody and conventional harmony and headed out into the sea of timbre." [1] The album 'Ave They Started Yet? recorded a collaboration with dancer Joanna Pyne on a tour in Europe in early 1980. The same year, he recorded a live album in Berlin with free jazz musicians Dave Holland and Lol Coxhill (credited as "The Johnny Rondo Duo"). He also played in G.T. Moore's reggae band the Outsiders; experimental band The Mayhem Quartet; the "no wave" jazz group Beating Time; the band Avant Roots, playing a mixture of Greek rembetika and improvised music; acoustic country blues band National Gallery; and electric blues band Continental Drift. [3]

In 1985, he recorded The Continuous Preaching Blues with Ian A. Anderson. He also recorded with Lol Coxhill and percussionist Roger Turner as The Recedents. Cooper became increasingly influenced by Polynesian slack key guitar styles, and in 1987 recorded an album, Aveklei Uptowns Hawaiians, with French slide guitarist Cyrille Lefebvre and other musicians including Lol Coxhill. He has continued to record in a unique style that he has called "ambient electronic exotica". From 1986 to 1996, he performed around Europe (Italy/Germany/Switzerland) with a four piece country blues band called "National Gallery - featuring Mark Makin, Michael Messer and Ed Genis. They performed around various festivals and appeared on Paul Jones Blues show on BBC Radio 2. They also appeared on Rai Uno TV in Italy. A CD featuring half of the band (Cooper/Makin) was issued on Rhiannon records called "National Gallery - Keep It Clean". Living in Rome, in 1999 he set up his own Hipshot label to release his recordings, and his subsequent releases have been prolific. Some of his albums include looped samples of music recorded in the Pacific, New Guinea, Australia, and elsewhere, often treated electronically. [3] His later releases have included Rayon Hula (2004), which incorporates samples of exotica musician Arthur Lyman, White Shadows in the South Seas (2013), and New Globe Notes (2014). [2]

Cooper has also written and performed scores for silent films played at festivals around the world. He has also written extensively on Hawaiian slack key guitar styles and performers. [3]

Reissues

His early 1970s albums Trout Steel, Places I Know, and The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper have been reissued on CD. [5]

Discography

Solo albums

Source: Mike Cooper Discography, Cooparia.com . Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  • Oh Really?! (Pye, 1969)
  • Do I Know You? (Dawn, 1970)
  • Trout Steel (Dawn, 1971)
  • Places I Know (Dawn, 1972)
  • Life & Death in Paradise (Fresh Air, 1975)
  • Mississippi Delta Blues – Live from Papa Madeo (LTR, 1982)
  • Island Songs (Nato, 1996)
  • Kiribati (Hipshot, 1999)
  • Zanzibar (Hipshot, 1999)
  • Finding Other Worlds – 21st Century Guitars (Hipshot, 2000)
  • Marconi (Hipshot, 2001)
  • Globe Notes (Hipshot, 2001)
  • Attenti Al Fuso (Hipshot, 2002)
  • Radio Daze (Hipshot, 2003)
  • Cruising Paradise (Hipshot, 2003)
  • Rayon Hula (Hipshot, 2004)
  • Metalbox (Hipshot, 2005)
  • Reluctant Swimmer / Virtual Surfer (Hipshot, 2005)
  • Spirit Songs (Hipshot, 2006)
  • Giacinto (Hipshot, 2006)
  • Borders (Hipshot, 2006)
  • Send of the Sea (Hipshot, 2007)
  • Beach Crossings – Pacific Footprints (Rai Trade, 2007)
  • Future Folk (Hipshot, 2008)
  • Aelita, Queen of Mars (Hipshot, 2008)
  • Tabu (Hipshot, 2008)
  • Onibaba (Hipshot, 2008)
  • Pacific Voyager (Hipshot, 2008)
  • Chao Phraya (Hipshot, 2008)
  • Live at the Hint House, New York City (Qbico, 2009)
  • Live in Sardinia (Hipshot, 2010)
  • Live in Athens (Hipshot, 2010)
  • Blue Guitar (Hipshot, 2010)
  • Radio Paradise – Mike Cooper in Beirut (Johnny Kafka, 2011)
  • White Shadows in the South Seas (Room40, 2013)
  • Forbidden Delta Planet Blues (Linear Obsessional, 2015)
  • Light on a Wall (Backwards, 2015)
  • Fratello Mare (Room40, 2015)
  • Guitar Solos – Free at Last (Hipshot, 2016)
  • Sky Songs (Hipshot, 2016)
  • New Guitar, Old Hat, Knew Blues (Room40, 2016)
  • Raft (Room40, 2017)
  • The Five Rings (Hipshot, 2018)
  • Tropical Gothic (Discrepant, 2018)
  • Playing With Water (Room40, 2020)

Collaborations and shared albums

Source: Mike Cooper Discography, Cooparia.com . Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  • Blues Like Showers of Rain (various artists, Saydisc, 1968)
  • Inverted World (with Ian A. Anderson, Saydisc, 1968)
  • Mike Cooper with the Machine Gun Co. and Michael Gibbs (Dawn, 1971)
  • The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper (Dawn, 1973)
  • How To Play Blues Guitar Vol. 2 (with Stefan Grossman, Kicking Mule, 1977)
  • Country Blues Guitar Festival (with Stefan Grossman, Kicking Mule, 1978)
  • 'Ave They Started Yet? (with Joanna Pyne, Matchless, 1981)
  • Johnny Rondo Duo Plus Mike Cooper (with Lol Coxhill and Dave Holland, FMP, 1982)
  • The Continuous Preaching Blues (with Ian A. Anderson, Appaloosa, 1985)
  • Barbecue Strut (as The Recedents, with Lol Coxhill and Roger Turner, Nato, 1986)
  • Aveklei Uptown Hawaiians (with Cyril Lefebvre, Chabada, 1987)
  • Zombie Bloodbath on the Isle of Dogs (as The Recedents, with Lol Coxhill and Roger Turner, Nato, 1991)
  • Avant Roots (with Viv Dogan Corringham, Mash, 1994)
  • Improvvisazioni Quartetto (with Jean-Marc Montera, Mauro Orselli, Eugenio Sanna, Ada, 1998)
  • Hulabaluh (with The Uptown Hawaiians, Hipshot, 2001)
  • Live @ Cineclub Detour (with Richard Nunns and Elio Martusciello, Hipshot, 2003)
  • Guardia Avanti (with Viv Corringham, Lol Coxhill, Steve Beresford, Max Eastley, Hipshot, 2003)
  • Tu Fuego (with Jeff Henderson, Anthony Donaldson, Tom Callwood, Qbico, 2006)
  • Oceanic Feeling-Like (with Chris Abrahams, Room40, 2008)
  • Right Hear Side By Side (with Yan Chiu Leung, Linear Obsessional, 2013)
  • Trace (with Chris Abrahams, Al Maslakh, 2014)
  • Truth in the Abstract Blues (with Fabrizio Spera, Roberto Bellatalla, Ethbo, 2014)
  • Cantos de Lisboa (with Steve Gunn, Rvng, 2014)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lol Coxhill</span> English free improvising saxophonist (1932–2012)

George Lowen Coxhill known professionally as Lol Coxhill, was an English free improvising saxophonist. He played soprano and sopranino saxophone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Beresford</span> British musician

Steve Beresford is a British musician who graduated from the University of York He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano. He has also played a wide range of music. He is probably best known for free improvisation, but has also written music for film and television and has been involved with a number of pop music groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Frith</span> English musician and composer

Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Abrahams</span> New Zealand pianist (born 1961)

Christopher Robert Lionel Abrahams is a New Zealand-born, Australian-based musician. He is a founding mainstay member of experimental, jazz trio the Necks (1987–present), collaborated with Melanie Oxley as a soul pop duo (1989–2003), and has issued ten solo albums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Renbourn</span> English guitarist and songwriter

John Renbourn was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career before, during and after that band's existence (1967–1973). He worked later in a duo with Stefan Grossman.

Hatfield and the North were an experimental Canterbury scene rock band that lasted from October 1972 to June 1975, with some reunions thereafter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Furtado</span> Musical artist

Tony Furtado is an American singer-songwriter, banjoist, and guitarist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonny Black</span> British musician

William Boazman, known as Sonny Black, is an acoustic guitarist based in the UK, who plays blues, rags and original compositions usually fingerstyle or slide. "Sonny Black" is a pseudonym adopted when he began the first Sonny Black's Blues Band. He previously became well known as Bill Boazman on the folk club circuit and at college gigs during the 1970s as a singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist. He has been credited with accompanying J. J. Cale, but this is a fallacy arising from a typographic error involving an American musician with a similar name, Bob Brozman.

<i>No Roses</i> 1971 studio album by Shirley Collins and The Albion Country Band

No Roses is an album by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band. It was recorded at Sound Techniques, and Air Studios in London, in the summer of 1971. It was produced by Sandy Roberton and Ashley Hutchings. It was released in October 1971 on the Pegasus label.

The history of blues in New Zealand dates from the 1960s. The earliest blues influences on New Zealand musicians were indirect – not from the United States but from white British blues musicians: first the R&B styles of Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, The Animals and The Rolling Stones, and later the blues-tinged rock of groups such as Led Zeppelin. The first American blues artist to make a big impact in New Zealand was Stevie Ray Vaughan in the early 1980s. Other blues-related genres such as soul and gospel almost completely by-passed New Zealand audiences, except for a handful of hits from cross-over artists such as Ray Charles.

Lindsay L. Cooper was a Scottish double bass, bass guitar and cello player. He spent four years working as a ship's musician and had performed and recorded with a number of other musicians and bands, including Michael Jackson, Boy George, Derek Bailey and Mike Oldfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stefan Grossman</span> Musical artist

Stefan Grossman is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer, music producer and educator, and co-founder of Kicking Mule records. He is known for his instructional videos and Vestapol line of videos and DVDs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Babbington</span> English rock and jazz bassist

Roy Babbington is an English rock and jazz bassist. He became well known for being a member of the Canterbury scene progressive rock band Soft Machine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian A. Anderson</span> English magazine editor, folk musician and broadcaster

Ian A. Anderson is an English magazine editor, folk musician and broadcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John James (guitarist)</span> Welsh fingerstyle guitarist and songwriter (born 1947)

John James is known, primarily, as a solo acoustic fingerstyle guitarist, composer and entertainer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al Jones (English musician)</span> English folk and blues songwriter, guitarist and singer

Alun Ashworth-Jones, known as Al Jones, was an influential English folk and blues songwriter, guitarist and singer, noted for his distinctive and original folk-rock guitar style and his often darkly humorous lyrics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seven Dials Jazz Club</span> Jazz venue in Covent Garden, London

The Seven Dials Jazz Club opened its doors in 1980 as a venue for live music in Covent Garden, London. It hosted a range of artists and styles of jazz and began to attract a regular audience. Starting in 1983, a series of saxophone festivals was held on the premises each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Borgmann</span> German musician

Thomas Borgmann, born in 1955 in Münster, is a German musician and composer of Jazz, free Jazz, and free improvisation music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stefan Grossman discography</span>

Stefan Grossman is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer. His discography consists of 22 studio albums, 2 live albums, 12 compilations, 22 videos, and 14 collaborations with other artists. In addition, his production, compositions and guitar work have been featured on a number of albums by other artists.

Peter Eden is a British former record producer and record label executive, best known for his work in the mid-1960s with Donovan, and later with jazz musicians such as John Surman.

References