The Jazz Organ Scene

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© Kate Glicksberg

Cooper-Moore Cooper-Moore (* 1946 in Virginia as Gene Y. Ashton) is a jazz pianist, composer of free jazz and new improvisational music, music teacher and instrument maker.   Cooper-Moore grew up in the Piedmont, VA area. He began to learn the piano at the age of eight and initially played church music. Under the influence of the music of Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman, he dealt with improvisational music. In 1970 he formed the trio Apogee with saxophonist David S. Ware and drummer Marc Edwards.   He received his bachelor's degree in music education from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and later he studied composition and arrangement at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. In 1973 he moved to New York, where he first performed as a pianist in clubs and finally rented a loft on Canal Street with Alan Braufman and converted it into a work and performance space for artists. In 1975 it was recorded for the first time on Braufman's Valley of Search album.   He is currently working with a trio of Tom Abbs and Chad Taylor called Triptych Myth. Another formation under his direction is the trio Digital Primitives, which includes Chad Taylor and Assif Tsahar. He also works in Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble, with Steve Swell, Susie Ibarra and William Parker, among others. he performed with Parker's Jeanne Lee Project at the 2003 New York Vision Festival. He recorded several albums for the avant-garde label AUM Fidelity.   In addition to his music activities, he has been involved in various multimedia projects, such as the Visions of Tomorrow project with the ecologist Sam Love. He also worked with the book artist Susan Share in her project Unfolded World and the Moving Spirits Dance Theater.   Cooper-Moore has spent several years as an educator and music therapist at the Harlem Interfaith Counseling Service in New York, at the Wolf Trap Foundation in Virginia, and at The New School in the Jazz Department. Cooper Moore lives and works in New York City.   Among the many instruments Cooper-Moore built is the A Deedly-bo, a three-string fretless banjo. For his instruments he uses e.g. materials such as paper, bamboo, metal, wood and acrylic glass. In addition to his main instrument, the piano, he performs primarily with his ashimba, a type of xylophone, as well as a bass violin, a horizontal harp and an electrically amplified mouth violin. His instruments were a.o. presented in New York at Thread Waxing Gallery and Goddard Riverside Community Center.   from Wikipedia

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