Ray Cooper

Short Biography

Raymond Thomas "Ray" Cooper (born 19 September 1942) 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.