Jack Cooper (American musician)


Jack Cooper 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.

Intro

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.

Early life, musical education and influences

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. He was raised in the nearby, northeastern section of La Habra. He is the younger brother of artist and stylist Cathy Cooper, grandson of H.V. Cooper and also the grandson of Harriet Byron McAllister His mother, Georgie Cooper, was an accomplished classical pianist; his Godfather Robert Voris was a well known baritone-bass vocal soloist. 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.
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. 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, wanted to orchestrate for jazz ensembles." 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. He has collaborated closely on several professional projects with CSULA classmate Luis Bonilla. 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.
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.
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.

Armed forces and the West Point Jazz Knights

At age 25 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. 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. He participated in the funeral of former President Richard M. Nixon in April 1994.
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.

Professional career

As instrumentalist

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, Chris Stamey and playing woodwinds on national tours for the Producers, Sweet Charity, and A Chorus Line. 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. He has also been a featured guest artist/soloist at the Western States Jazz Festival, the Birmingham International Jazz and Blues Festival, the 45th International Horn Symposium, and the Festival Virtuosi in Recife, Brazil. 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.

As composer (highlights)

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. His music has been featured at numerous venues around the world to include the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival. 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. His musical influence on the ballet gained critical acclaim.
Though his catalogue has a great deal of varied music, his work emphasizes the big band genre. His big band writing has been featured with many groups internationally on the professional and educational levels, "...this style of jazz music is my wheel house of expertise." 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. Both are recognized internationally as exceptional examples of contemporary, progressive big band composition and orchestration. As a staff composer and arranger, he is featured with the BBB featuring Bernie Dresel on their acclaimed 2022 CD The Pugilist. Cooper serves as Composer in Residence with the Southern California based Big Band Jazz Machine.

Chamber and solo works

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. 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 these worlds."
One of the Missing – for those lost in Iraq for euphonium was commissioned in 2007 and premiered in 2008. 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. The work was also used on the soundtrack of a 2011 Canadian television film broadcast on the Vision network. 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.

Berlin, Germany

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. He also assisted in arranging for the Collegium musicum Potsdam Symphony Orchestra and the Compass Big Band. Cooper has conducted music and performed in venues such at the Wühlmäuse Theater, Heimathafen Neukölln and Kunstfabrik Schlot. 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. He has worked closely with German jazz, pop and Schlager personalities such as Marc Secara, Jiggs Whigham and Marc Marshall. 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.

Awards and special recognition

Jack Cooper is currently honored as a named professor by the University of Memphis and also the UM College of Communication and Fine Arts: 2025 Faudree Professor and 2025 Rawlins Professor of Music. He was named as the Pearl Wales Professor of Music from the University of Memphis Scheidt School of Music, 2020-22. 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. 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. He is also the recipient of numerous ASCAP composer awards since 1996. 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. As conductor of the University of Memphis Jazz Singers, the group was awarded "Outstanding Performance" honors in the notable DownBeat Magazine 48th Annual Student Music Awards.

Teaching and education career

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, Birmingham (U.K), Berlin Germany, Graz Austria and Bogotá Colombia. He has also served as guest conductor for the Missouri All-State Collegiate Jazz Orchestra and the Arkansas, Arizona, Kentucky All-State High School Jazz Ensembles. 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. Since 2021, he has served as guest artist with the Erfurt Jazz Project and lecturer at the Universität Erfurt during summer semesters.

Timeline of professional/musical career


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Audio recordings

As featured artist, composer or producer

As composer, arranger, conductor or producer (and instrumentalist on select tracks)

As instrumentalist

Film, television, DVD, video

As instrumentalist/actor/interviewed

As composer/arranger/conductor/musical director

  • 1995: Twice is Nice
  • 2008: Candle on the Bluff Awards
  • 2009: Candle on the Bluff Awards
  • 2011: Live at Nine (CBS) WREG
  • 2012: ''The Art Academy''

Published music, books, educational media, articles as author and reviewer

  • 1995: Double Helix
  • 2005: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore – four entries authored
  • 2007: Experiencing Jazz – contributing author for DVD and web content
  • 2008: Winter Wonderland
  • 2008: MTSBOA Jazz Bands 2 CD set
  • 2011: JazzTimes Magazine
  • 2012: Perfectly Composed
  • 2014: Practical Music Theory – music for chapter 19
  • 2019: Composing Jazz contributing author
  • 2025: Louis Armstrong und die DDR, Gerbergasse 18, Ausgabe 3/2025

Other artists worked with (partial list)