JEROME COOPER – The Unpredictability Of Predictability /solo album (LP-1979)

Label: About Time Records – AT-1002

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: US / Released: 1979

Style: Avant-garde, Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live at Soundscape in New York City, July 6, 1979.

Album Design by – Therese Bolton

Cover and Liner Photographs by – Doug Fidoten

Engineer by – Larry Shengold

Produced by – Jerome Cooper in association with Verna Gillis

All music composed by Jerome Cooper

Matrix / Runout (A-side): AT-1002-A [DC] FW/NY (EDP in ellipse)

Matrix / Runout (B-side): AT-1002-B-1 (EDP in ellipse) [DC] FW/NY

Original US pressing. Solo album of a drummer of the LOFT team.

Tracklist:
A  -   The Unpredictability Of Predictability:

    1 - Movement A, B  (flute, whistle, chiramia, bass drum, sock cymbal) .................... 9:59

    2 - Movement C      (drum set / mallet) ..................................................................... 4:29

    3 - Movement C1    (floor tom-tom, bass drum, sock cymbal, voice) ........................ 6:40

B  -   Bert The Cat      (balaphone, chiramia, bass drum, sock cymbal) ...................... 20:37

"This is not just an album for drummers... anyone into music can dig it this music. Classical music people can dig it because it's structured, people into rock because of the beat, people into jazz because of the improvisation aspect, and those into ethnic music because of the instruments involved." -- Jerome Cooper

A great solo performance from Jerome Cooper – not just drums and percussion, but work on flute, balaphone, and other instruments too! Cooper really brings all of his most thoughtful elements into play here – working slowly, and covering space with ideas that really take some time to stretch out and find themselves – then confidently move forward to open up new chapters in the performance – a bit like some of the best early moments of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, but presented here as a solo act! Side one features "The Unpredictability Of Predictability", in four movements – and side two features "Bert The Cat".

Not many jazz drummers present entire albums of themselves in solo format, but when they do, chances are they're going to haul out everything including the kitchen sink to dazzle the listener with their range and dexterity. Not Jerome Cooper. This superb musician, known primarily for his masterful and invaluable contributions to the fine trio Revolutionary Ensemble, treats his solo performances as free-standing compositions scored for only certain instruments from which he extracts huge volumes of sounds and rhythms. For example, "Bert the Cat" is written for balaphone (an African ancestor of the marimba), chiramia (a double-reed instrument that sounds liked a more softly-timbred shenai), bass drum, and sock cymbal. Using only these four elements, Cooper constructs a rich, propulsive theme so inherently fascinating that one soon forgets one is listening to only a solo percussionist. Cooper has no interest in wowing the listener by playing fast or loud, but simply desires to develop lovely rhythms and melodic patterns and allow them to flower. A fine recording and wonderful antidote for those who claim to be bored by drum solos.

(_Review by Brian Olewnick)

If you find it, buy this album!