This week WMJS features the Jim Cooper Quartet featuring Elgin Vines!
Jim Cooper
Jim Cooper, vibraphone
Steve Sandner, piano and vocals
Elgin Vines, bass
Tim Froncek, drums
The award winning vibraphonist, pianist, composer and teacher Jim Cooper has been playing the vibes for over 50 years, leading numerous groups and appearing as both soloist and sideman. He has performed with international jazz artists Frank Wess, Milt Hinton, Mark Levine, Marcus Belgrave, Ira Sullivan, Buddy de Franco, and Jon Faddis and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. Originally from Chicago and moving to West Michigan in 1997, he has performed with many musicians from that state including clarinetist Dave Bennett, Jeff Haas, Terry Lower, Rob Smith, Bill and Laurie Sears, Jerry McKenzie, Tad Weed and Paul Keller to name a few.
He has appeared in many clubs, concerts and festivals including The Chicago Jazz Festival, Sutton’s Bay (MI) Jazz Festival, Lansing Jazz Festival, Sedona Jazz on the Rocks, Grand Rapids Jazz Festival, The South Haven Jazz Festival, Paradise Valley Jazz Party (AZ), Chicago’s Millennium Park, Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase, Chicago’s Green Mill, Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, Cleveland's Bop Stop and venues in Phoenix, San Francisco, Denver and Taiwan.
As a Delmark recording artist in the early 90s, he released two CDs with jazz legend Ira Sullivan, Tough Town and Nutville. Other CDs as a leader include Itchin' to Groove, Trio Musik Chi-Town Sessions and his latest, Make Someone Happy, also with multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan.
Jim’s awards include a 1986 National Endowment for the Arts grant, a WYCE-FM "Jammie Award," and ArtPrize's 2015 "Best Jazz Composition Award" for his song, Third Circle. His song, Mallethead was included in the 2019 book, The City Was Yellow, Chicago Jazz and Improvised Music 1980-2010. 2022, featured his song, Waltz For Betty on the Apple TV show, For All Mankind.
As an educator, Jim has taught vibraphone for the Jazz Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University. Since 2001, he has taught summers at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and is currently, an adjunct music instructor at Lake Michigan College. He endorses Musser Vibes and Mike Balter Mallets.
“. . . he’s no kid, judging by his mature lines . . . a warm vibist who goes for the heart..."
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West Michigan Jazz Society PO Box 150307 Grand Rapids, MI 49515
616-490-9506
