Ray Cooper

Ray Cooper
Ray Cooper during a tour with Elton John in January 2010, at a concert in Hawaii
Background information
Birth name	Raymond Thomas Cooper
Born	(1947-09-19) 19 September 1947 (age 69) Watford, Hertfordshire, England
Genres	Rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, actor
Instruments	Percussion, drums, vocals
Years active	1960s–present
Associated acts	Elton John, Billy Joel, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Mark Knopfler, Roger Waters, Maynard Ferguson, The Traveling Wilburys, Joan Armatrading, Weezer, Ravi Shankar, Harry Nilsson
Notable instruments
tambourine, congas, drums, wind chimes, gong, cymbals, cowbell

Raymond Thomas "Ray" Cooper (born 19 September 1947) is an English virtuoso percussionist. He is a session and road-tour percussionist, and occasional actor, who has worked with several musically diverse bands and artists including George Harrison, Billy Joel, Rick Wakeman, Eric Clapton, and Elton John. Cooper absorbed the influence of rock drummers from the 1960s and 1970s such as Ginger Baker, Carmine Appice, and John Bonham. Incorporation of unusual instruments (for rock drummers of the time) such as cowbells, glockenspiel, and tubular bells, along with several standard kit elements, helped create a highly varied setup. Continually modified to this day, Cooper's percussion set offers an enormous array of percussion instruments for sonic diversity such as the tambourine, congas, crash cymbals, cowbells, roto toms, tubular bells, the gong, snare and timpani. For two decades Cooper honed his technique; In the 1990s, he reinvented his style. He is known for the 7-minute percussion and drum solos he performed during the years 1990–1991 for Eric Clapton and for the 7-minute percussion and drum solos during the year 1994 during all the Face to Face Tours with Billy Joel, and Elton John, and the tours with the Elton John band during the years of 1994–1995.

Cooper was born in Watford, Hertfordshire. Most notable is his work with Elton John, with whom he has played on many albums.

Cooper had a short stint with The Rolling Stones playing percussion for their 1974 It's Only Rock'n Roll album. Later in that decade he recorded with George Harrison, the Kinks, Wings and Art Garfunkel.

In the late 1970s Cooper toured with Elton John as a duo in which Elton would play a solo set and then be joined by Cooper on percussion for the second half of the concerts. The tour included concerts in Russia (1979), and in the course of the tour Cooper became a favourite with Elton John fans for his expressive energy and his incredible solos. Fans show up with signs for Cooper at every concert. The success of the "Solo" tour with Elton John was repeated in 1993–1994 when he and Elton John brought their two-man show to a new generation in the United States. During that time, Cooper was also featured as part of a Disney Channel concert telecast, A Special Evening With Elton John, recorded September 1994 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Most recently, Cooper reunited with Elton John in the autumn of 2009, with a series of shows in France and Italy.