Name Albert Cooper | Role Musician | |
Albert Cooper (b. 16 June 1933 Norwich) is a British jazz and blues vocalist and musician.
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Early life
In 1941, Cooper joined the choir of St John the Baptist RC Cathedral where Father Anthony Roberts trained him to use his voice and project himself, instilling enough confidence for him to sing treble, and be a soloist in the choir from 1941 to 1948. His first stage appearance was at the Hippodrome Theatre in Norwich aged 12 in December 1945.
Musical career
He began singing with Black Anna (Antoinette Carrara (1905-1976) at the Jolly Butchers public house, Norwich, in late 1954. Together they played literally hundreds of engagements between 1955 and 1964. In early 1955 Cooper was offered the chance to go to Italy where he bought his first guitar from a small music shop called Bebera, off St Mark's Square,Venice. He then formed a skiffle group which later transformed into the Albert Cooper Folk Group. Around 1960/1 he owned and co-managed Norwich’s first folk club,the Jacquard Club with his brother Tony where artists such as the folk-singers Paul Simon and Sandy Denny subsequently performed. Other acts include Jess Fuller (7 October 1965), Tom Paxton (11 January 1966). In March 1966, rising U.S. folk star Judy Collins appeared at the club.
The club re-launched itself in 1971. Early acts to grace the club’s stage included The Strawbs, Elkie Brooks’s Vinegar Joe featuring Robert Palmer and Jim Mullen. An off premises event featured close friend Ralph McTell. On 17 October 1972, British jazz legend Ronnie Scott stepped onto its stage and baptized it ‘East Anglia’s premier jazz venue’. Subsequently jazz musician George Melly performed there.
In February 1973 the Queen of Skiffle, Beryl Bryden (1920-1998), came to the club. Cooper had performed with Bryden on many previous occasions during the late fifties and early sixties, mainly at the Jolly Butchers.
Cooper's Blues and Boogie Band played their first gig on 18 March 1978 at the Jacquard Club. The backbone of the group remained predominantly the same: Gareth Butcher on lead guitar, Chris Hawkins on fretless bass and John Thirkettle on the drums. The group has taken the stage with a multitude of additional musicians over the years, most notable variations include bass player John Dunn and drummer John Thirkettle, as early as 1972. The rekindled band of 1981 included the talents of Chris Hawkins, who had started life with UEA band Pod in the late Sixties. He left the band in 1984 to play jazz in Lanzarote but has since re-joined the present-day band. Long before the inception of the Blues and Boogie Band, Gareth Butcher had come to Norwich in 1970 to study art at the UEA and had started out playing in 1967 with the Bakerloo Blues Line. He was a constant performer at the Jacquard Club either playing in or making guest appearances with many of the groups.
Cooper had a chance meeting with R’n’B icon Fats Domino in June 1991. In autumn 1993 and spring 1994 respectively, he achieved one of his lifetime’s ambitions, visiting the birthplace of urban blues, Chicago. It was while at the city's club Legends owned by brothers Phil Guy and Buddy Guy that Cooper received one of his greatest compliments. Buddy Guy declared Cooper’s interpretation of blues legend B.B. King's The Thrill Is Gone to be the best of all reworkings.
The octogenarian Cooper continues to perform blues, Dylan and jazz numbers in Norwich to the present day (June 2015). His band includes his youngest son Chris Cooper (b. 1980) on keyboards, a talented musician and composer in his own right, leading and writing for Lost Level Band and his Jazz Trio.