RIP Jerome Cooper

[colinmce]

Per Arts For Art. RIP.

[Chuck Nessa]

Damn. I was a friend and friend of his wife. Any info would be appreciated.

[JSngry]

RIP to a guy who was there, and who mattered while he was.

[clifford_thornton]

From the Arts for Art mailing list:

Jerome Cooper loved freeJazz and his daughter. He left us all yesterday May 6, 2015. He lost his fight with cancer and now we all have lost. He was the last to go of the Revolutionary Ensemble preceeded by violinist/ composer Leroy Jenkins and bassist/composer Sirone (Norris Jones). Jerome was a FreeJazz giant. A drummer, multi-instrumentalist and composer. He developed what he called multi-dimensional drumming "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."

We have lost yet another irreplaceable artist.

Really loved his solo music, especially "The Unpredictability of Predictability." Saw him play solo at one Vision Festival maybe 2000 or '01, and it was spellbinding. RIP sir, and thank you.

[king ubu]

very sad news - r.i.p. Jerome Cooper

there's another entry on Pi Recordings' FB page:

Just found out via Jason Hwang that drummer Jerome Cooper passed away yesterday. We were honored to have worked with Jerome when we recorded the Revolutionary Ensemble release "And Now..." back in 2004. Since then all three members -- Jerome, Sirone, and Leroy Jenkins -- have passed away. Jerome was a drummer of real sensitivity and an enigma of a man: he was sensitive, prickly, hardheaded, angry, vulnerable and kind, often all at once. We've been out of touch for a while, but every now and then we thought about checking in on him at his East Village apartment. Now all we have are some great memories and stories, and most importantly one great musical artifact of when the mighty Revolutionary Ensemble decided to reunite for one more go-around. RIP, Jerome...

https://www.facebook.com/PiRecordings

[paul secor]

Farewell to a musician whose work I enjoyed immensely.

Thank you, Mr. Cooper.

[JSngry]

For The People, man, I love that record, that was a statement!

[bcummins]

Damn. I was a friend and friend of his wife. Any info would be appreciated.

Chuck - please contact me about Jerome if you'd like to talk or if I can help with any info. All the best - Beth Cummins

[Utevsky]

This is a great loss. I played some of Cooper's music on my radio program tonight (May 11). It filled approximately the second hour of a two-hour show. If you're interested, you can go to the audio archive at www.kbcs.fm and search for "Straight, No Chaser" on May 11. A streaming version of the program will be available on demand for the next two weeks. The playlist is posted here: .

[corto maltese]

Very sad indeed.

I can only repeat what others members have said and express my gratitude for the wonderful music.

[ATR]

This was a blow. I heard from Joe Morris last week. I met Jerome through Jim Silverman when I was getting into producing recordings. He was managing Ahmed Abdullah and Jerome at the time, and I had already introduced myself to Ahmed and was about to produce a record with the group Abdullah. About Time wound up recording The Unpredictability of Predictability live at Soundscape, and we also produced the quintet recording Outer and Interactions. Both LP's are still in print and available from dusty groove. I think Jerome and Beth Cummins's daughter was born sometime in between the release of those two records, and Jerome was also touring and recording with Cecil Taylor at that point (It Is In the Brewing Luminous). I have never met either Beth or Levanah. Jerome was an inspiration to many musicians, I think most of his About Time albums were bought by musicians. Allan Chase of New England Conservatory likes to talk about learning from Jerome at Creative Music Studio in Woodstock and he tells all his graduate students to get those records. Joe Morris said on Facebook that Unpredictability has always been his favorite solo album. I miss Jerome, and I wish I had stayed closer to him and done more projects with him through the years. He was one of the first iconic avant garde musicians I met personally in the 1970's. Easy to get along with, funny and deep at the same time, always honest, always did what he said he would do. God rest his beautiful soul. He left us with some outstanding music.

Damn. I was a friend and friend of his wife. Any info would be appreciated.

Chuck - please contact me about Jerome if you'd like to talk or if I can help with any info. All the best - Beth Cummins

Hello Beth,

So sorry for your loss. Please give my best to Levanah also.

Alan Ringel

And remember what Jerome said. 'Those aren't notes. They're tones.' Among many other things.

[clifford_thornton]

I said hello to him briefly at a Vision Festival some years back - he seemed very fun and cool (not to mention brilliant), but I wish I'd made more of an effort to get his story while he was on the planet.

Thanks for getting those albums out, Alan - they're essential in my book.

[bcummins]

Hi - Here's the information about Jerome's memorial on Tuesday June 30 at Roulette in Brooklyn. Hope to see friends and please feel free to forward this to anyone who knew Jerome. Creatively - Beth

[Chuck Nessa]

JeromeMemorialDate100K.jpg

Hi - Here's the information about Jerome's memorial on Tuesday June 30 at Roulette in Brooklyn. Hope to see friends and please feel free to forward this to anyone who knew Jerome. Creatively - Beth

Thanks Beth. Sorry I can't be there.

[Hardbopjazz]

RIP.

[soulpope]

R I P

[Chuck Nessa]

Beth has provided an updated poster listing participants so far.