Jerome Douglas Cooper (December 14, 1946 – May 6, 2015) was an American

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

musician. In addition to trap drums, Cooper played

balafon The balafon (pronounced , or, by analogy with ''xylophone'' etc., ) is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé peoples, Mandé, Bwaba Bobo people, Bobo, Senufo people, Seno ...

chirimia Chirimía (sometimes chirisuya in Peru) is a Spanish term for a type of woodwind instrument similar to an oboe. The chirimía is a member of the shawm family of double-reed instruments, introduced to North, Central and South America in the sixtee ...

and various electronic instruments, and referred to himself as a "multi-dimensional drummer," meaning that his playing involved "layers of sounds and rhythms".

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 ...

reviewer Ron Wynn called him "A sparkling drummer and percussionist... An excellent accompanist". Another Allmusic reviewer stated that "in the truest sense this drummer is a magician, adept at transformation and the creation of sacred space".

Career

Cooper studied with Oliver Coleman and Walter Dyett in the late 1950s and early 1960s, then studied at the

American Conservatory of Music The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservat ...

and Loop College. In 1968, he worked with Oscar Brown, Jr. and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre in the U.S. but moved to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

before the end of the decade, where he played with

Rahsaan Roland Kirk Rahsaan Roland Kirk (born Ronald Theodore Kirk; August 7, 1935Kernfeld, Barry.Kirk, Roland" ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', 2nd ed. Ed. Barry Kernfeld. ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Grove Music Online''. ''Grove Dictionary of M ...

Steve Lacy Steve Thomas Lacy-Moya (born May 23, 1998) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. He gained recognition as the guitarist of the alternative R&B band the Internet, which he joined in 2015. His self-produced debut EP, '' ...

, Lou Bennett (with whom he visited

Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

and

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

), the

Art Ensemble of Chicago The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz group that grew out of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, AACM) in the late 1960s. The ensemble integrates many jaz ...

, Alan Silva, and

Noah Howard Noah Howard (April 6, 1943 – September 3, 2010) was an American free jazz alto saxophonist. Biography Born in New Orleans, Howard played music from childhood in his church. He first learned trumpet and later switched to alto, tenor and sopran ...

. After returning to the U.S. in 1971, he joined the

Revolutionary Ensemble The Revolutionary Ensemble was a free jazz trio consisting of violinist Leroy Jenkins (1932–2007), bassist Sirone (Norris Jones, 1940–2009) and percussionist/pianist Jerome Cooper (1946–2015). The group was active from 1970–1977, and r ...

alongside Leroy Jenkins and Sirone, where he remained for several years, and played piano, flute, and bugle in addition to drums. In the 1970s, he played with Sam Rivers, George Adams,

Karl Berger Karl Hans Berger (March 30, 1935 – April 9, 2023) was a German-American jazz pianist, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. He was a leading figure in jazz improvisation from the 1960s when he settled in the United States for life. He founde ...

, Andrew Hill, and

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chi ...

. In the 1980s he worked with McIntyre again, as well as with

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in comple ...

Death

Cooper died in Brooklyn on May 6, 2015, aged 68, from complications of multiple myeloma, according to his daughter, Levanah Cummins-Cooper.

Discography

As leader or co-leader With the

* 1972: ''

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

'' (ESP-Disk) * 1972: '' Manhattan Cycles'' (India Navigation) * 1975: '' The Psyche'' (RE Records) * 1976: '' The Peoples Republic'' (A&M/Horizon) * 1977: ''

'' (Enja) * 2004: '' And Now...'' ( Pi Recordings) * 2008: '' Beyond the Boundary of Time'' (Mutable) * 2012: '' Counterparts'' (Mutable)

As sideman

With Lester Bowie * '' Fast Last!'' (Muse, 1974) With

* '' New York, Fall 1974'' ( Arista, 1974) With Ted Daniel * ''Tapestry'' (Porter, 2008) With Leroy Jenkins and The Jazz Composer's Orchestra * '' For Players Only'' (JCOA, 1975) With

* ''Live in Paris, Vol. 1'' ( France's Concert Records, 1988) * ''Live in Paris, Vol. 2'' ( France's Concert Records, 1988) * '' Dog Years in the Fourth Ring'' (32 Jazz, 1970

997 Year 997 ( CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first child of the emperor, but because of the power stru ...

With

* ''Wordless'' (Futura, 2009) With Marcello Melis * ''Perdas De Fogu'' (Vista, 1975) With

Roscoe Mitchell Roscoe Mitchell (born August 3, 1940) is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' described him as "one of the key figure ...

and Don Moye * ''Wildflowers 5: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions'' (one track) (Douglas, 1997); released on CD as '' Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions - Complete'' (Knit Classics, 1999) With Alan Silva * ''

Seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

'' (BYG Records, 1971) * ''My Country'' (Leo, 1989) With

* ''

It is in the Brewing Luminous ''It is in the Brewing Luminous'' is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded at Fat Tuesdays, NYC, on February 8 and 9, 1980, and released on the Hathut Records, Hat Hut label. The album features performances by Taylor with Jimmy Lyons, Ramsey Ameen ...

'' ( hat Art, 1980) With

Clifford Thornton Clifford Edward Thornton III (September 6, 1936 – November 25, 1989) was an American jazz trumpeter, trombonist, political activist, and educator. He played free jazz and avant-garde jazz in the 1960s and '70s. Career Clifford was born in Phil ...

* ''

Communications Network A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, messag ...

'' (Third World, 1972)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Jerome 1946 births 2015 deaths American jazz drummers Jazz musicians from Chicago Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from multiple myeloma in the United States Revolutionary Ensemble members American male drummers Drummers from Chicago