Biography

Warren B. Cooper is a nouveau-spirit inspirational singer, songwriter, and producer whose work draws from the liturgical tradition and the improvisational freeform of jazz. His soothing meditative style represents a “gumbo” of musical influences that provide a practical backdrop for exploring the themes of peace while inviting listeners to reconsider their role as solutions for today’s global challenges.

 

As the son of a Presbyterian minister, he grew up “chained to the pew,” locked into the concepts of gospel music as an instrument of healing and reconciliation. When his fourth-grade music teacher hired him for his first paid musical gig, it was the beginning of Cooper’s discovery that music was inside of him. He began experimenting with blending different musical styles and infusing secular and sacred music traditions to find his own identity as a human being and as an artist.

 

Cooper’s worldview was shaped by the dual reality of growing up as a Black male in the shadow of Philadelphia’s 1964 race riots and under the influence of his father’s commitment to reaching across cultures and sectors to build bridges. If his fourth-grade teacher awakened the artist in him, it was his father’s dedication to restoring a spirit of compassion and peace in the community and around the world that has had the most impact on the themes he explores in his art.

 

Cooper’s music is rooted in a desire to inspire humanity to look past our differences to appreciate and celebrate the unifying humanity of our neighbors. His musical influences range from the street performers he heard playing along Columbia Ave. in Philadelphia as a child and the artists of the legendary Philadelphia International Records, to the likes of Miles Davis and Johnny Hartman, Walter Hawkins, Maurice White, Antoine Dvorak, and James Taylor. He prides himself on his ability to cross-pollinate sounds from across traditions and genres to create a backdrop against which people are challenged and inspired to think differently about the human condition.

 

Cooper has been a featured performer at the Scranton Jazz Festival, the Washington National Cathedral, South Jazz Kitchen, and at liturgical and private events in conference centers, sanctuaries, and concert halls across the United States. Today, he is most passionate about inspiring others to use music as a tool for examining solutions to the problems that exist in our tumultuous world.

 

In addition to being a performing artist, Cooper is a music educator and a long-time radio professional. He served for over 28 years as the founding producer and host of Ovations Gospel Music Radio on WRTI 90.1 FM in Philadelphia and is a director for The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts. He is is an ordained ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and serves on the staff of the Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary. He is also a program producer for The Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice and as executive producer for The Warren Cooper Creative Laboratory Network.

 

His eighth studio project, The Permanently Peaceful Suite, is a contemporary blend of jazz, gospel, neo-soul, and spoken word artistry. He hopes it will offer a fresh and practical context from which humanity can approach its current condition. It is scheduled for release in early Summer 2024.