George "Buster" Cooper (April 4, 1929 – May 13, 2016) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

trombonist.

Career

A native of

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...

, United States, Cooper played in a territory band with Nat Towles in Texas in the late 1940s and with

Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, an ...

in 1953. He played in the house band at the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater (formerly the Hurtig & Seamon's New Theatre; also Apollo Theatre or 125th Street Apollo Theatre) is a multi-use Theater (structure), theater at 253 125th Street (Manhattan), West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of U ...

in New York City in the mid-1950s, and following this he was in

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...

's band. Late in the 1950s he and his brother Steve formed the Cooper Brothers Band. From 1962 to 1969, he was a trombonist in

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

's Orchestra. In 1973, he moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, and played in jazz orchestras over the next several decades, including

Bill Berry William Thomas Berry (born July 31, 1958) is an American musician who was the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. Although best known for his economical drumming style, Berry also played other instruments, including guitar, bass guita ...

's band and

The Capp-Pierce Juggernaut The Capp-Pierce Juggernaut is an American big band jazz ensemble, named after the 1977 album ''Juggernaut'' (Concord Jazz) by Frank Capp and Nat Pierce. The group was known equivalently as the Capp-Pierce Orchestra and the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut ...

. He led a trio at a restaurant in St. Petersburg, Florida. In 1993, Cooper appeared as a jazz trombonist in the film '' Murder Between Friends'', set in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

.Murder Between Friends

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, accessed 31 December 2022 George "Buster" Cooper died on May 13, 2016, of prostate cancer in St. Petersburg, Florida, at the age of 87.

Discography

As leader

* ''E-Bone-Ix'' with Thurman Green (Blue Lady, 1998)

As sideman

With

* ''Juggernaut'' (Concord Jazz, 1977) * ''Live at the Century Plaza'' (Concord Jazz, 1978) * ''Juggernaut Strikes Again!'' (Concord Jazz, 1982) * ''Live at the Alley Cat'' (Concord Jazz, 1987) With

* ''The Symphonic Ellington'' (Reprise, 1963) * ''Afro-Bossa'' (Reprise, 1963) * ''Ellington '65'' (Reprise, 1964) * ''Plays with the Original Motion Picture Score Mary Poppins'' (Reprise, 1964) *Harlem 1964 (Pablo, 1985) * ''Duke Ellington's Concert of Sacred Music'' (RCA Victor, 1966) * ''The Popular Duke Ellington'' (RCA Victor, 1966) * ''Antibes Concert'' (Verve, 1967) * ''The Far East Suite'' (RCA Victor, 1967) *Liederhalle Stuttgart 1967 (SWR, Jazzhaus, 2020) * ''And His Mother Called Him Bill'' (RCA, 1968) * ''Second Sacred Concert'' (Fantasy, 1968) * ''Yale Concert'' (Fantasy, 1973) * ''The Great Paris Concert'' (Atlantic, 1973) * ''Duke Ellington's Jazz Violin Session'' (Atlantic, 1976) * ''Up in Duke's Workshop'' (Pablo, 1979) * ''Concert in the Virgin Islands'' (Discovery, 1981) * ''Serenade to Sweden'' (Black Lion, 1982) * ''Harlem'' (Pablo, 1985) * '' All Star Road Band Volume 2'' (Doctor Jazz, 1985) With

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...

& Duke Ellington * ''Ella at Duke's Place'' (Verve, 1966) * ''The Stockholm Concert 1966'' (Pablo, 1984) * ''Ella & Duke at the Cote D'Azur'' (Verve, 1997) With

* ''Wailin' at the Trianon'' (Columbia, 1955) * ''Lionel Hampton'' (Amiga, 1976) * ''Aurex Jazz Festival '81'' (EastWorld, 1981) * ''Ambassador at Large'' (Glad-Hamp, 1984) With

Johnny Hodges Johnny Hodges (July 25, 1907 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophone, alto saxophonist, best known for solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years. Hodges was also featured on sop ...

* ''Everybody Knows'' (Impulse!, 1964) * ''

Triple Play In baseball or softball, a triple play (denoted as TP in baseball statistics) is the act of making three out (baseball), outs during the same play. There have only been 739 triple plays in Major League Baseball (MLB) since 1876, an average of ju ...

'' (RCA Victor, 1967) * '' Swing's Our Thing'' (Verve, 1968) With A. K. Salim * '' Stable Mates'' (Savoy, 1957) * '' Pretty for the People'' (Savoy, 1957) * '' Blues Suite'' (Savoy, 1958) With others * Cat Anderson, ''A Chat with Cat Anderson'' (Columbia, 1963) * Billy Brooks, ''Windows of the Mind'' (Crossover, 1974) *

Ruth Brown Ruth Alston Brown (; January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of R&B". She was noted for bringing a popular music, pop music ...

, ''Fine and Mellow'' (Fantasy, 1992) * Milt Buckner, ''The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions'' (Black and Blue, 1998) * Lawrence Brown, ''Inspired Abandon'' (Impulse!, 1965) *

Arnett Cobb Arnett Cleophus Cobb (August 10, 1918 – March 24, 1989)
accessed July 2010. was an American tenor saxophonist, somet ...

, '' Smooth Sailing'' (Prestige, 1959) * Arnett Cobb, ''The Wild Man from Texas'' (Black and Blue, 1977) * Harry "Sweets" Edison, ''For My Pals'' (Pablo, 1988) * Jimmy Forrest, ''Soul Street'' (Original Jazz Classics, 1998) *

, ''Happy Session'' (Columbia, 1959) *

Earl Hines Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, " ...

, ''Once Upon a Time'' (Impulse! 1966) *

Abdullah Ibrahim Abdullah Ibrahim (born Adolph Johannes Brand on 9 October 1934), previously known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cap ...

, ''Bra Joe from Kilimanjaro'' (The Sun, 1979) * Abdullah Ibrahim, ''Tintinyana'' (Kaz, 1988) * Mundell Lowe, ''Satan in High Heels'' (Charlie Parker, 1961) * Mundell Lowe, ''Blues for a Stripper'' (Charlie Parker, 1962) *

Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. As a virtuoso who is considered to be one of the greatest Jazz piano, jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordin ...

, ''Plays Duke Ellington'' (Pablo, 1999) *

Bobby Short Robert Waltrip Short (September 15, 1924 – March 21, 2005) was an American cabaret singer and pianist who interpreted songs by popular composers from the first half of the 20th century such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold ...

, ''Guess Who's in Town'' (Atlantic, 1987) *

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

, ''Francis A. & Edward K.'' (Reprise, 1988) * O. C. Smith, ''Love Changes'' (Motown 1982) *

Billy Strayhorn William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the ...

, ''Lush Life'' (Red Baron, 1992) *

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (; born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a ...

, ''Wise Woman Blues'' (Rosetta, 1984) *

Gerald Wilson Gerald Stanley Wilson (September 4, 1918 – September 8, 2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. He arranged music for D ...

, '' Calafia'' (Trend, 1985)

References

;Footnotes ;General references *

Scott Yanow Scott Yanow (born 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author. Life and career Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles. Beginning in 1974, Yanow was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles and was the jazz e ...

, Buster Cooperat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Buster 1929 births 2016 deaths Musicians from St. Petersburg, Florida American jazz trombonists American male trombonists Jazz musicians from Florida Duke Ellington Orchestra members American male jazz musicians The Capp-Pierce Juggernaut members