Raymond Cooper was born on 19 September 1947 and is an English musician who has worked as a session and road-tour percussionist.
19 Facts About Ray Cooper
2.
Ray Cooper absorbed the influence of rock drummers from the 1960s and 1970s such as Ginger Baker, Carmine Appice and John Bonham.
3.
Ray Cooper is known to have played tambourine, congas, maracas, bongos, cymbals, wind chimes, bell tree, triangle, timpani, bells, tubular bells, shaker, vibraphone, marimba, gong, Rototoms, jaw bone, cowbell, finger cymbals, timbales, crotales, guiro, glockenspiel, whistle, drum kit, snare drum, keyboards, piano and guitar.
4.
Ray Cooper later joined the band Blue Mink, and as a session musician he played on records for artists such as America, Carly Simon and David Essex.
5.
Ray Cooper played on and co-produced the album Somewhere in England by George Harrison in 1981.
6.
Ray Cooper has long been associated with Elton John's career, playing on more than 90 recordings, and performing in more than 800 concerts with John both as a duo and in the Elton John Band.
7.
Ray Cooper had a short stint with The Rolling Stones playing percussion for their 1974 It's Only Rock 'n Roll album.
8.
In 1977 and again in 1979, Ray Cooper toured with Elton John as a duo in which John would play a solo set and then be joined by Ray Cooper on percussion for the second half of the concerts.
9.
Ray Cooper showed up on Christine McVie's self-titled solo album in 1984.
10.
Also in 1985, Ray Cooper performed as percussionist for a number of artists during the charity event Live Aid.
11.
On 15 September 1997, Ray Cooper was the principal percussionist along with Phil Collins at the Music for Montserrat fund raiser concert in Royal Albert Hall.
12.
Ray Cooper was part of the band at the Concert for George, the memorial concert for George Harrison, held at the Royal Albert Hall in 2002.
13.
Ray Cooper contributed to the tribute concert for Jim Capaldi in January 2007.
14.
Towards the end of the 1980s, Ray Cooper got involved in film as a musician, actor and producer.
15.
Ray Cooper has played small roles such as the preacher in Robert Altman's feature film Popeye starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall.
16.
Ray Cooper has performed music in several of Terry Gilliam's productions, appearing on-screen in quirky roles like the technician who swats the beetle at the beginning of Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil and as the functionary whispering in the ear of Jonathan Pryce's Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson character in 1989's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
17.
Ray Cooper appeared in the Concert for Cascara in the 1985 film Water, and appears as a street commercial for The Zero Theorem.
18.
Ray Cooper has continued recording and performing with Elton John on various albums and tours, including John's The Million Dollar Piano show in Las Vegas.
19.
In 2009, John and Ray Cooper performed a small exclusive series of shows, mostly in the UK and Europe, the first time since 1995 that the two had toured together without a band.