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James Cooper
Since: 2009 | Position: Album Reviewer | Location: Topeka | Page Views: 7,626 
About Me
James Cooper is an English professor, a poet, and a longtime fan of jazz.
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My Jazz Story
My father exposed me to jazz by playing his Scott Joplin and Stan Getz records when I was growing up. That initial introduction,
which later was augmented by the descriptions of jazz in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and The Dharma Bums and Frank Zappa’s
experiments with jazz on his Waka/Jawaka and Grand Wazoo albums, led to my own explorations into jazz, starting in earnest
with Miles Davis’ Big Fun. Despite my love for jazz over the past forty-some years, I have attended only a handful of concerts;
the most recent ones have featured Chris Burnett, Matt Otto, and Alaturka, all of which were in the Kansas City metro area. For
those people seeking to explore jazz, I recommend getting a good discography, such as The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD (5th
ed), and paying particular attention to those recordings that have gotten the most number of stars possible. That approach
should lead to years of
sifting through the best that has been created.
My House Concert Story
Favorite Places to See Jazz
Favorite Writers
Contests
Theme Song
Playlist
This page was last updated on 2016-04-18.
