Press & Radio

"Jessie Allen Cooper's music has brought healing to countless workshop attendees worldwide."

— Marsha Nelson,Ph.D. Creative Journal Expressive Arts workshop facilitator

See Jessie in The Monitor, 2007
Read about Lucia Cappachione

Learn about Visioning®

This is your invitation to connect to a musical world that embraces a stunning collection of genres and instrumentation from Jazz and Rock to Blues, Latin, and other international influences.

It's a world inventively crafted by sax man Jessie Allen Cooper as he combines the organic sound and feel of real instruments with ten stunning original compositions to create a magnificently varied and brilliantly performed project.

Jessie calls "Let's Connect" his horn album, since the emphasis is on his own tenor/soprano sax and harmonica leads in addition to some tasty Miles Davis inspired trumpet / flugelhorn work from Jimmy Hale.

This is also a highly percussive album, featuring a potpourri of rhythms from Steve Reid's incredible percussion-toy-box. Steve has actually built some of the Instrument's himself.

Jessie Allen Cooper has created an exceptional chemistry here among this elite group of seasoned players. So, do check out the song credits as you listen, to see who is involved in this amazing project. Most importantly, allow the remarkable songs in this album to assist you in finding the pure joy that great music can bring.

Jessie believes "music is a high art form that adds something special to our lives. It helps us connect to each other and the world around us." With that Thought-in-mind, enjoy connecting with this positive musical energy!

— Scott O'Brien /SmoothJazz.com

Enough gloom and doom! I promised sunshine and glee. "LET'S CONNECT" by JESSIE ALLEN COOPER is just that. Try the first Smooth Jazz Jam Band! Are we buckled up yet? I realize this term may be a lesson in jovial juxtaposition, but Jessie's joyous approach is creating another angle to garner audience is to be auditioned and annexed to your playlist.

— Roger Lifeset / Peer Music

In the spirit of his iconic ancestor, Benjamin Franklin, a genius known for smithing powerful creativity, ingenuity, and a deep sense of restless invention, Cooper brilliantly taps into an eclectic array of musical genres ­ pop, jazz, R&B, chill, and world beat. With seamless craft, Cooper subtly weaves these distinctive styles, thus transcending passing musical trends. The popular composer and saxophonist's studio, Cooper Sound Waves, is located in Venice Beach, California, the melting pot which clearly influenced this project. Drawing inspiration from this multitude of genres, but letting each have its voice, makes Cooper's highly anticipated new CD 'Let's Connect' an exciting must have for adventurous listeners everywhere.

— Jonathan Widran

Looking for something to take to another place and time, perhaps somewhere quiet and carefree? Well, I have just the album for you! Jessie Allen Cooper and Tim Ponzek (on piano) have created the ultimate masterpiece when it comes to skipping off into a carefree and peaceful realm of your own. " Pacific Lounge" is nearly music you can lounge around to, yet enjoy all the comforts of soft yet dramatic "New Age" music. A tinkling piano combined with soft lulls of a saxophone, creates a perfect atmosphere for relaxing in. They couldn't have done this better.

— Space Junkies Magazine 2005

Great Sax and Piano combo to chill-out and relax with.

— New Connexion 2005

Jessie Allen Cooper has created a unique sound on his Pacific Lounge album by having only two instruments ­ his saxophone accompanied by acoustic piano played by Tim Ponzek. The unusual recording, features a dozen carefully crafted tunes, was specifically designed as romantic relaxing music ­ a perfect prescription for everyone in today's hurries, stressful, noisy world.

— Accent On Tampa Bay 2005

A dreamy duet using sax and piano for quiet introspections A soothing recording, for a quiet or romantic mood, performed by two excellent musicians.

— The Messinger 2005

On a cool cloudy autumn morning in Southern California I reflect on the songs in the album "Pacific Lounge" all these compositions portray and were inspired by LOVE. "Love is the highest form of communication, pure of purpose it knows no enemies. If love is found from purity of purpose light surrounds and protects that space. In the eyes of love golden feelings and memories can exist. Love can be sexual, lustful, innocent, and passionate. Love never leaves it only changes inside us sometimes from one moment to the next. When listening to this album during yoga except the calmness and allow the Love to create a healing result. The music can be used in a romantic dinner as a mood enhancer to help create a peaceful one on one or within a group of people wanting to "Chill Out ".

— Jessie Allen Cooper

"Sound Travels" Is currently and has been played on hundreds of radio stations.

Read about Jessie: From Paperboy to Musician

SOUND TRAVELS goes well any time you want to transport yourself via music to exotic destinations. a welcome breath of fresh air to your music library.

SmoothJazz.com / Scott O'Brien

Richness in a manner that traps the ears and surrounds the senses.

— Toledo Blade / Larry Roberts

A playful collection of gorgeous melodies and colorful arrangements

— CD Review Corner / Cheryl Hughey

Wouldn't feel out of place on the same rack as The Crusaders, Spyra Gyra, and Dave Grusin Cooper has backed himself with a varied selection of excellent and sympathetic musicians who add their own magic to these tracks. I thoroughly enjoyed Sound Travels and would like to hear more.

— The Borderland.com

Sound Travels is a global and musical inspirationnice mixture of jazz and new age music. awe inspiring and food for the soul.

— Spirit Works / Angela Hutchinson

Sax-and-harmonica player Jessie Allen Cooper has crafted some highly melodic and pleasurable jazzy instrumental music on his new CD, SOUND TRAVELS. Primarily smooth jazz. he brings in top musicians to augment his sound. Check out this diverse yet strong collection of instrumental tunes.

— jazzreview.com

Sound Travels repays attention and repeated listens, as all the best albums do. Music as warm as a global sunrise. Recommended.

— New Hope International / Ian Sherred

Collecting session cats that have played with the best of the best, the sax man crafts a sweet world-beat date that straddles a lot of fences but always comes back to a great smooth jazz vibe. first call all the way.

— Midwest Record Recap

Velvet soprano sax weaving across a heavy drum beat and mystical string arrangement. An interesting mix of styles and worth buying just for the smooth jazz tracks alone.

— Wes Gillespie

Lately I've received several 'smooth jazz' albums for review from the USA - it seems to be a musical genre that has been revived in recent years after a decade or so of dormancy. This new album by saxophonist/keyboardist Jessie Allen Cooper is of the same genre, perhaps nodding a little to world music in terms of its rhythms, but it certainly wouldn't feel out of place on the same rack as Spyra Gyra, The Crusaders, and Dave Grusin etc - or indeed William Woods, reviewed elsewhere on this website.

I think the dozen instrumental tracks are intended to depict our multifaceted world through tracks played in a diverse range of jazz-flecked styles. A particular favourite is Groovin' Out Back, a funky slice of Chicago-style harmonica-led blues that rocks easily. I also specifically liked Heavens Dance. Though to be honest there are no tracks on this album that are of poor quality. Cooper has backed himself with a varied selection of excellent and sympathetic musicians who add their own magic to these tracks. I guess the uneducated might class this sort of instrumental music as 'elevator muzak', though I don't agree - it takes great skill to record an album of instrumentals and keep the listener's interest piqued for the entire album. I thoroughly enjoyed Sound Travels and would like to hear more of Jessie Allen Cooper's music in the future.

— The Borderland Music Watch

An eclectic blend of world-beats, you'll find this CD to be an easy listen. Songs vary from jazz, rock and roll to new age meditative styles. There is something for everyone in this playful collection of gorgeous melodies and colorful arrangements.

— All That Jazz / Cheryl Hughey

Inspired by the events that happened and had followed September 11, 2002, Producer, Composer, Saxophonist, and Multi-Instrumentalist Jesse Allen Cooper, a seventh-generation American who has traced his family history all the way back to one of the country's Benjamin Franklin, privately produced an album of music incorporating vocalizations by Diane Vaughn and Serpentine and his own narration of the horrific attacks on America. The CD incorporates elements of Middle Eastern percussion layered over contemporary urban musical techniques like looping, appropriation, and ambient jazz to create a kind of meditation on the events for one's own consumption.

The finished work resonates with the composer's concern, not just for those directly affected, but also for all humanity. Proceeds for the album will go toward the Jessie Allen Cooper Children's Fund, which will help to bring the arts back into public schools. For additional information visit the website at www.coopersoundwaves.com.

— Mark A. Rivera

While I do want to move on quickly from the subject of 9/11, there's one more release I wanted to mention, this time in music form. I've been listening to one of the most haunting? yet somehow cathartic? releases I think I've ever heard. What's interesting is that I don't know if it's the music that is causing the flood of emotions, or if it's the prism of the events of 9/11 that is allowing the music to have more resonance. The CD in question is 9-11-01 (Cooper Sound Waves, $14.95 SRP), by Jessie Allen Cooper. The suite was begun immediately following the attack, and the flood of emotions is evident when you listen to the piece? which combines vocals and soundbites from the actual news coverage of the events. When I first heard of this CD, I thought, "There's another guy trying to capitalize on a national tragedy, and I want no part of it." Then I heard the disc... and I was wrong. People respond in their own ways to tragedy... writers write, painters paint, orators speak, and musicians write music.

— Ken P, Film Force

"Our school day just goes smoother when we begin it with the Creative Journaling using music by Jessie Allen Cooper"

— Mission, Texas C.I.S.D. school teacher

"My Creative Journal Expressive Arts workshop audiences scribble and journal to Jessie's music all the while digging deeper into their right brain hemispheres in order to reach inner peace, creativity, and personal insight. I LOVE the simplicity yet powerful 9 emotions to get a person where they had no idea they were going for the deepest insight and healing. Thank YOU Jessie."

— Marsha Nelson, PhD Creative Journal Expressive Arts workshop facilitator

Read about Project Insight and Jessie Allen Cooper in The Monitor

Jessie Allen Cooper treated us to a sneak preview of his upcoming release, Moment In Time, and I might add It's the best thing he's done to date and features a list of big artists as long as Sepulveda Boulevard. An album to watch for ...

— The Mac Report: Pac Chatter 1989

Read about Moment In Time in Music Connection Magazine

Read about The Sax Man in The Argonaut

Venice Summer Festival

JAC in “The Wave’s Music List”

Soft Wave in “Radioactive Airplay”

...SOFT WAVE is a good name for this album...music is well produced with a layered synthesizer orchestration.

— Victory Review, 9/89

...When (Cooper) and his band jammed, the audience really got into the act...Cooper's finest trait as a performer may just be his intense concern to involve his audience.

— Music Connection, 8/89

...SOFT WAVE, a tantalizing and sophisticated recording for the urban New Age listener...full of vivid imagery.

— New Frontier, 3/89

...SOFT WAVE features six heart-touching compositions capable of making significant waves in the domains of contemporary jazz and instrumental New Age music.

— East Coast Rocker Harmonies, 1/89

...Cooper makes a grand impression as a serious musician and a sensitive, talented composer.

— Allare, 1/89

...Cooper's compositions are intriguing, reflecting his love for his adopted California home, as well as for the Pacific Ocean, which has been a major source of his inspiration.

— Music Connection, 1/89

Ranks #8 on TOP 100 NEW AGE CHART recordings for July 2004.

Heaven sent is appealing, uncomplicated music to shift listeners from tension to relaxation. FNew Age Retailer, reviewed by Mara Applebaumeature this serene CD with "Relaxation Music" and "Giftware".

— Mara Applebaum / New Age Retailer

There is no other instrument that can reproduce the haunting sound of the soprano sax and the kalimba, tiny and mighty, is about as exotic as you can get. Cooper and Kithara do an amiable job of wedding the two instruments to soothe you, inspire you and get you on your way.

— RJ Lannan / NewAgeReporter.com

Sweet, haunting, relaxing music. Great to turn on when you walk in the door after a hard day or during meditation, yoga or even massage. Very healing, unique, personal and sometimes playful.

— The Phoenix Newspaper

Heaven Sent is a journey on a blessed, peaceful day. The merging of Cooper and Kithara is nothing short of destiny. They knew they were meant for this music. I found it meditative, natural and soothing. Both artists have a rich background of experience and their music projects their emotions with such clarity, you feel you are on their journey as well.

— Angela Hutchinson / Spirit-Works

"Heaven Sent could be compared to floating upon pleasant astral ocean tides, in ethereal, transcendental bliss."

— DJ Raven / BGA College Radio 89.9fm Missoula, MT

"Heaven Sent is original and soothing, perfect for Sunday mornings or anytime escape from stress is desired."

— Scott Galloway Smith / WTUL New Orleans

Heaven Sent is, in a word (and no pun intended) heavenly. I seldom give a lot of background on the why and wherefore of a CD, but allow me to indulge just this once.

Sherman, set the wayback machine for the mid 1970s. Soprano sax player Jessie Allen Cooper becomes friends with kalimba (an African instrument sometimes referred to as a "thumb piano") player Buddy Kithara. They start recording an album together in their home state of Washington. One night, when their engineer is a no-show, they decide to move their recording gear into the four-story high cement hallway of a nearby building and record an impromptu jam/improvisation session. Turns out that Cooper and Kithara are "astrological twins," being born in the same town (Everett, Washington), on the same day in the same year. Several years later, Cooper revisited the music and, with help from a friend, he added some of the most tasteful and complementary nature sounds to the music and voila, Heaven Sent was released (on cassettee only). Who knows, maybe it was the alignment of the stars that helps explain the amazing musical symmetry which resulted from that improvisational recording session. All I can say is thank those same stars for whatever forces prompted Jessie Allen Cooper to re-release this album. Heaven Sent is way up near the top of my list of best recordings of 2004.

Granted, I have a bias for the kalimba which has been one of my favorite instruments since I first heard it showcased on an Earth Wind and Fire track from one of their first albums, Open Our Eyes (titled, coincidentally "Kalimba"). And I have always been a bigger fan of the soprano sax than the other members of that reed family. Even taking into account my favorable prejudices, though, this is still musical magic, especially being accented by the nature sounds which act as a "circle tour" of nature, starting and ending along the shore (with waves, gulls and even a fog horn!) with stops near a forest at night (replete with crickets and frogs) as well a visit to a mountain stream and getting caught in a brief rainstorm.

Most of the time, Cooper's soprano sax and Kithara's kalimba duo, although here and there one or the other flies solo (such as on the kalimba number, "Solitude," which is surprising - given its title - uptempo and cheery). "Morning Tide" (the first music track on the CD) opens with bouncy kalimba before sax flits into view (that four story reverb effect is something to hear, by the way), almost as if it were bouncing on the whitecaps out beyond the shore or playing tag with the tide. Cooper's playing is the perfect combination of improvisation without overt noodling so as not to sound too aimless.

"In the Night" may be my favorite track (although that's an academic exercise since I love the whole album so much). Cooper's sax is plaintive and quite minimal as his notes hang suspended or rebound high in the upper caverns of that reverberation chamber, while Kithara's kalimba is somewhat minimal, serving more as tonal accompaniment to both the sax and the crickets, frogs, and other creatures of the night.

"In the Mountains" has Kithara stepping up and playing more lively, while Cooper settles into another more floating style (as on "In the Night" but less somber and more cheery). "A Rainy Day" demonstrates, as you would expect if you know the sonic characteristics of the kalimba, the perfect nature sound for the instrument, since the kalimba's own musical "voice" imitates "droplets" hitting tuned metal, so to speak. While the tempo is upbeat here, the intermixing of the thunder and rain colors the song with a hint of gray, as if the listener were watching the storm from the comforts of one's cabin's screen porch! Closing out the CD, "By the Ocean" highlights Cooper's technical virtuosity, as he ends the song with some tasty upper register work, soaring and dipping with dexterity and passion.

Really, I could go on praising this wonderful recording, but my words wouldn't do it justice. It's hard to believe Heaven Sent is an "older" recording, as it sounds as fresh, exciting, and every bit as good, technically, as anything I've heard recently in the music/nature sound genre. It represents quite a feat of engineering and mastering, obviously. Kudos to Kithara and Cooper, engineer Frank Sparks, mastering wiz Bernie Grundman, and BIG kudos to Jan Brodin who recorded the nature sounds. Frankly, if you are looking for some ideal music for up north (I mean, this music and a lakeside cabin - it just won't get any better than that) or for late night listening, and you want something non-electronic and enhanced with nature sounds, well, step right up and latch onto Heaven Sent. You can thank me later. My highest recommendation.

— Bill Binkelman / Wind and Wire