Harry Cooper (musician)

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Harry Cooper (* 1903 in Lake Charles , Louisiana , † 1961 ) was an American jazz trumpeter of the swing era .

Live and act

Cooper, who grew up in Louisiana, then Kansas City, Missouri , learned to trumpet at Lincoln High School there. He then began studying architecture at the Hampton Institute in Hampton (Virginia) ; he also played with local bands. After Cooper had given up his studies, he moved to Baltimore and became an accompanist for the blues and jazz singer Virginia Liston , with whom he eventually came to New York. There Liston hired other musicians who traded as Seminole Syncopators and were directed by the pianist Graham Jackson. Cooper's first recordings with the Seminole Syncopators (including Prince Robinson , Graham Jackson and Bernard Addison ) were made in 1924 for OKeh .

After a three-month engagement with the group in Atlanta, Cooper returned to New York City in late 1924 and worked on the local jazz scene in the first half of the 1920s. a. with Elmer Snowden and Billy Fowler ; In 1925 he played for a short time in Kansas City with Bennie Moten , with whom he also recorded for OKeh in May 1925. In the following years he also took part in recordings in New York by Annie Summerford / Eddie Heywood , Clara Smith , Sara Martin and the Cotton Club Orchestra, of which he was a member from 1925. In July and December 1925 he played for OKeh under his own name ( Harry's Happy Four , with RQ Dickerson (cornet), Earres Prince (piano) and the banjo player Charlie Stamps ) the tracks "Swinging That Swing" and "St. Louis Chant ”as well as“ Western Melody ”and“ Blue, That's All ”, the latter both with Louis Metcalf instead of Dickerson.

In February 1925, Cooper (alongside Leroy Rutledge) became the second trumpeter of Duke Ellington's Washingtonians ; he the (following his alcoholism increasingly unreliable) trumpeter Bubber Miley was to replace, was Ellington that Cooper also " Growling learned". On March 19, 1926, recordings were also made with the Ellington Orchestra for Pathé , "George Grind" and "Parlor Social Stomp"; on March 30th followed the singing numbers "Wanna Go Back Again Blues" and "If You Can't Hold The Man I Love" (with Sonny Greer as the band vocalist). In 1926, Cooper played with Buddy Christian 's Creole Five before he left the United States and initially worked in England, where recordings with Leon Abbey were made in 1928 .

From 1929 Cooper lived in France; At the end of 1929 he recorded with Sam Woodings Orchestra in Paris . In the following decade he played there a. a. in the backing band of the singer James Boucher ( inter alia with Arthur Briggs , Albert Wynn , Willie Lewis ), with Maceo Jefferson and His Boys (inter alia with Arthur Briggs, Frank "Big Boy" Goudie , Freddy Johnson and Elisabeth Welch , vocals). Like Briggs and Jefferson, Cooper remained in France during the German occupation; the performance conditions worsened massively for him due to his origin. In 1942 there were recordings with Pierre Fouad ; In January and May 1943 Cooper had the opportunity to record several records for the Swing label under his own name ( Harry Cooper et son Orchester , with Robert Mavounzy , Sylvio Siobud , Felix Valvert , Jack Diéval , Pierre Gérardot , Lucien Simoëns , Armand Molinetti ). The titles “Nuages”, “Blues 43”, “Lune Rousse”, “Allegro”, “Caprice en Ut” and “Nos Impressions”, a version of the “ Body and Soul ” standard, were created . In this and the following year he was in the recording studio with Hubert Rostaing and Jerry Mengo .

After the liberation, Cooper played with Eddie Barclay and in 1947 with Louie Williams and His Crazy Rhythm (including Eddie Barclay, Jean-Pierre Sasson , Emmanuel Soudieux ). After the last recordings for Blue Star under his own name ("Hit That Jive, Jack") he disappeared from the music scene. In the field of jazz he was involved in 34 recording sessions from 1924 to 1947.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f A. H. Lawrence: Duke Ellington and His World . New York & London: Routledge, 2004, p. 63.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed November 15, 2017)
  3. ^ Mark Tucker: Ellington: The Early Years . Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press 1905, p. 136.
  4. ↑ Cast: Duke Ellington's Washingtonians : Harry Cooper, Leroy Rutledge (tp), Charlie Irvis (trb), Don Redman (cl, as), Prince Robinson (cl, ts), Otto Hardwick (as, bar), Duke Ellington (p ), Fred Guy (bjo), Bass Edwards (tu). See Tom Lord: Jazz Discography (online)
  5. ^ Rashida K. Braggs Jazz Diasporas: Race, Music, and Migration in Post-World War II Paris . University of California Press 2016, pp. 221f.
personal data
SURNAME Cooper, Harry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Lake Charles , Louisiana
DATE OF DEATH 1961