Jerome Cooper

Background

Jerome Douglas Cooper, born December 14, 1946, was an American free jazz musician who played trap drums, balafon, chirimia, and various electronic instruments. He called himself a "multi-dimensional drummer," meaning his playing involved "layers of sounds and rhythms." Critics described him as a sparkling drummer and an excellent accompanist, with one calling him a magician adept at transformation and creating sacred space. Cooper began his studies in the late 1950s and early 1960s with Oliver Coleman and Walter Dyett, later attending the American Conservatory of Music and Loop College. In 1968, he worked with Oscar Brown, Jr. and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre before moving to Europe, where he performed with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Steve Lacy, Lou Bennett, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Alan Silva, and Noah Howard. After returning to the U.S. in 1971, he joined the Revolutionary Ensemble with Leroy Jenkins and Sirone, playing piano, flute, and bugle alongside drums. During the 1970s, he played with Sam Rivers, George Adams, Karl Berger, Andrew Hill, and Anthony Braxton, and in the 1980s he worked again with McIntyre and Cecil Taylor. Cooper died in Brooklyn on May 6, 2015, at age 68 from complications of multiple myeloma, according to his daughter Levanah Cummins-Cooper.