JEROME COOPER / In Concert: From There to Hear
Jerome Cooper (drums, balaphone, chiramia, Yamaha PSR 1500)
"Imagine a drummer who plays this flute with one hand, bass drum and high-hat with his feet, and triggers drum loops, chord sequences and bass patterns with his other hand. Whether it is written or improvised, the resulting music is closer to world-funk than avant-garde jazz." - Francois Couture
What is multi-dimensional drumming? After dealing with polyrhythms, I began to hear layers of sounds and rhythms. Divided into many parts and facets, the drum set and secondary instruments I use and play are all aspects of the drums. In the future, there will be many changes and developments in the area of the mind – so what we (humankind) think and hear, is what we shall see and hear. In order to play the drum set you must be able to manipulate four or five things at one time (i.e. bass drum, snare drum, high-hat, ride cymbals and maybe voice). So an instruments name and structure doesn’t stop me from playing them like a drum. You have instruments that are structurally different from the drum, but they have the same characteristic in the approach to the drum (i.e. piano, balaphone and shoes with taps). In order to find the music of the drums, I had to change my assumptions and beliefs about music in relation to the drums, which is sound in the creation of multi-rhythms. In the liner notes I will try to explain the music on this CD, from the instruments I am playing, to the structure of the improvisation.
The chiramia is a wind instrument. It is played with a double reed. Mine have six stops (some have three, four and two). They are from Mexico. To me, the chiramia is my voice synthesizer. In Mexico, some musicians play it along with their drums. In my performance, I use two, mostly played individually, but sometimes together. Through the years, I have given them names. "Slim" is the name of my chiramia with the harsh sound to it. "Big Mama" is the name I gave to the chiramia with the mellow sound. "Repooc" is the psychic name I’ve given my balaphones, talking drums and cymbals (African), snare drums and tom-toms (American). My bass drum is assigned the name of "OM," and my high-hat's name is "Julio." People who are familiar with my music from the 60’s and 70’s know that I played piano as a secondary instrument. During the period of the Revolutionary Ensemble, I would play the drum set and then go over to the piano. The problem was external duality. When Yamaha and Casio came out with the electronic keyboard and drum synthesizer, it became part of my drum set (i.e. bass drum, snare drum, high-hat, cymbals and electronic tonal rhythmic activator). "Emorej" is the name assigned to my Yamaha. Look at it this way – some musicians give names to their instruments (i.e. B.B. King’s guitar "Lucille"). Or you can look at it another way – a lot of drummers carry and play percussion instruments (i.e. gong, whistles, bongos, etc.). I do the same thing except all of my percussion instruments are synthesized into one instrument.
The music on this CD is from live performances at two venues--Roulette and The Knitting Factory--spanning the years 1995-98.
TRACK LIST
Bantul
Monk Funk
My Funny Valentine
My Life
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
The Indonesian
REVIEWS
During the 1970s Cooper drummed alongside Leroy Jenkins and Sirone in The Revolutionary Ensemble. Now, as then, his commitment is to raise the cultural status of jazz drumming. Recorded live at Roulette and the Knitting Factory, during three gigs between 1995-98, this is an attractively melodic and intricately polyrhythmic solo percussion album. Cooper has absorbed lessons from drummers worldwide. He uses balaphones and talking drums and integrates secondary instruments, including an electronic keyboard and the chiramia, a double reed wind instrument. It says a lot that he can import aspects of gamelan without banality and make "My Funny Valentine" sound almost entirely unfamiliar.
François Couture, All Music Guide
This solo CD by percussionist Jerome Cooper cannot be considered unnecessary - his few LPs as a leader have not been reissued on CD (at least when this one came out). In Concert: From There to Hear was put together from a handful of performances at Roulette and the Knitting Factory (both in New York) between 1995 and 1998. Cooper performs on a regular jazz drum kit, African instruments (talking drums, balafon), electronic drums, keyboards and samplers, and the chiramia, a Mexican double-reed instrument. His music is hard to pigeonhole, to say the least.
Imagine a drummer who plays this flute with one hand, bass drum and high-hat with his feet, and triggers drum loops, chord sequences and bass patterns with his other hand. Whether it is written or improvised, the resulting music is closer to world-funk than avant-garde jazz. “Bantul” is propelled by a gamelan-like melody played on the balafon. “Monk Funk” opens with a synthetic drum loop backing Cooper’s cymbal playing. Five minutes later he moves to other parts of his kit before grabbing his chiramia and settling into a melody and groove. “My Funny Valentine” and “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” have little to do with the standards they represent and will infuriate any purist. “My Life” is completely improvised, but the use of pre-determined sequences and the development of a melody on balafon make it sound as structured as the other tracks on the disc. Highly confusing for anyone into avant-garde music and free improv, Cooper’s music represents a strange hybrid and a very personal form of expression. Yet, surprisingly, its vocabulary remains somewhat limited.
Glenn Astarita, Allaboutjazz.com
Drummer/percussionist Jerome Cooper's fruitful musical legacy with the Revolutionary Ensemble and stints with saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton, pianist Cecil Taylor, and others reads like a who's who in modern jazz. Recorded during two solo live performances spanning 1995-1998, Cooper's remarkable agility and captivating musical spirit is enacted throughout these predominately endearing works.
Cooper's polyrhythmic drumming and multitasking persona is prominently exhibited on this outing. The opening piece, "Bantul," features the artist's idyllic spin on Indonesian gamelan music, as he utilizes the West African instrument known as the balaphone: a mallet instrument consisting of tone bars arranged across a wooden frame.
Here, Cooper states an innocent and memorably melodic childlike theme along with a march-like pulse rendered on his drum kit. The percussionist also integrates an electronic keyboard and electronic tonal rhythmic activators into his vast rhythmic arsenal, whereas some of these sounds and sequences may be the result of triggering techniques. On "Monk Tune," he executes oscillating patterns atop an ostinato pulse, while also using his tom-toms as a vehicle for African style rhythms. Cooper crafts a world beat groove via his extended soloing on the chiramia (a Mexican woodwind instrument) during Charles Mingus's classic "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat." However, at nearly twelve minutes in length, Cooper's intense, chant-like choruses tend to wear a bit thin. Nonetheless, this recording provides listeners with a broad perspective of the artist's irrefutable enthusiasm and glittering musicality.
