Leah Gough-Cooper

Once more, itʼs been a rather long time since I last posted news on what Iʼm up to here. The last 6 months have been an exciting time, here in NYC. I wonʼt go into all the details of what I did, but along with settling into this city a little more, I had many great opportunities to perform frequently with the aforementioned groups and continue gaining experience at my internship!

So, whatʼs in store at the moment? Iʼm having the great privilege to perform with another wonderful singer, Allegra Levy, and her band this month, at a wonderful French Bistro in Brooklyn, and thereafter am hoping to continue working with these great bunch of musicians! Iʼm also continuing to book the odd gig with my own quartet, Human Equivalent (in its many shapes and forms), on a per monthly basis. Open invitation, however: feel free at any time to ask of my services! I am not bound to any one project and am always excited to work with new people and new/different music!

Iʼve been finding much inspiration in a couple of other areas this year.
At my internship, Iʼm finding myself gravitating a lot towards the Mixing/Audio and Sound Designing aspects there – my goal is to gather much more practice and experience in these fields, getting an even better grasp on the various software used in the industry and for my own projects, too.
With this, Iʼve begun to delve more into Electronic music, which has always been a genre that Iʼve gaped at in wonder and adoration from afar for years now. Like anything in the arts, it takes time, patience and practice to fully realize ideas (both sounds and composition/arranging) and understand the full potential of it all – itʼs also amazing in that itʼs a world where you really have to set your own limits as you go along and be really sure of what it is you want to produce, because the rabbit hole can go on and on and on…
In all honesty, itʼs been a while since Iʼve been this inspired and really determined to learn it. Funny how I canʼt seem to escape the educational (or, should I say, self-educational) bug, right…? It now feels like Iʼm ready to pursue this area after all thatʼs come beforehand!

So, as they say, please watch this space. Iʼm excited to go down this path and merge everything I learnt (theory, acoustical performance) with this new platform! Iʼm sure the outcome with be entertaining, at least…
In the meantime, the temperature has dropped here in NYC – hereʼs to making it through January with a warm heart…!
Check back in soon!

Yet again, as is the way, it’s been quite a time since I last wrote an update for the site. I can assure you that it’s due to the crazy whirlwind of activity that’s happened over the last few months.

So, seeing as today is Labor Day here in the US, and having been for a vigorous 8 mile walk (yes, exercise is still something I have to put in, even when it’s as scarce for me as it is right now!), a few hours’ practice, some laundry and a spot of cleaning my apartment, it seemed the appropriate time to sit down, relax for the rest of the afternoon and detail some of what’s been going on at the headquarters here.

For the next year, I’m going to be living in Brooklyn, New York (NYC), where I have been now for the past month (since August 1st, to be exact). It’s a school-related work-experience year that all foreign students (unless you’ve committed a crime or some-such idiotic act), are entitled to, so I decided around the time I last updated my site, that I wanted to spend mine in The Big Apple. I’m going to be honest, 6 months ago, the thought of moving to NYC was a daunting and extremely scary prospect: the massive buildings, the fast-paced mentality, the horror stories of being a miserable, starving artist etc., etc.
Would it be melodramatic of me to say that this city has potentially saved my life? Answer: yes (haha!). But for those of you who know what transformation took place with me over the last year, you’ll understand what I’m talking about…

NYC is inspiring because it is a city that constantly reminds you to live for NOW. It has amazing beauty, but also edge and grit. It has it’s quieter, more serene areas, but is also has the most over-the-top-Times-Square-crazy-party-life districts, too. It has an abundance of culture, from so many places and backgrounds, that have created this melting pot over a space that’s not as big as you would think. NYC has the ‘tude but you’ll always get help with your luggage in the Subway. You’ll never get bored with both the scenes and up-to-date ideas and creativity produced by anyone and everyone, Einstein to Average Joe.
And people like it when you smile at them in the street. Even if you or they are a little bit crazy…
In short, I am very happy here and inspired. Thought I’d just express that. Which brings me to the proper update…

So, why am I happy? Because I can be who I really am here:

Human Equivalent is back in business, after a 1 year (and a half)’s hiatus (blame the Masters course… . I’ve decided to go back to my roots, to a time when I had the same fiery passion to just make some fun and bristling music with a nice wee group of friends, so am returning to the Quartet setting, with sax, electric guitar, electric bass and drums, for that edgy Rock-Jazz I’ve missed for so long.
Human Equivalent NYC features Serghio Jansen on electric guitar, Alex ‘Busby’ Smith on electric bass and Bob Edinger on drums. They are all NYC-based musicians, all incredible and just some of many of the coolest people I’ve met here so far.
We’ve already done a show, got a small recording out of it, so will be posting that up in the near future, as a little taster, unless we get an opportunity to record something with even better quality before then…!

Some other projects I’m going to be getting a chance to be involved in is drummer Rodrigo Bonelli’s Group, who specializes in a mixture of contemporary jazz & Brazilian music. If you’re in the city, try and check this group out!
I’m also having the pleasure of sitting in with vocalist and composer Emily Wolf over the next month, a great singer who I went to school with, for some more straight-ahead jazz, in some great little settings in and around the city!

So, that’s some of the performances I will be doing/have been a part of. But there’s more…

A good friend of mine from Berklee approached me over the summer to inform me that a company in Manhattan was looking for an intern. As I had only just graduated from the Masters and the world was looking like a rather big oyster, the opportunity was something I definitely wanted to participate in.

Yessian Music is a production house for original music, sound design, audio mixing and music licensing in film, television, advertising, gaming and even theme parks. I was a performance major (along with plenty of composing) for my time at school, so you can imagine that I am very willing to learn the ins-and-outs of the business and how it all works, as it wasn’t the avenue I pursued originally.
Needless to say, I am extremely fortunate to have been given this position and can’t express how much I enjoy working there. Not only am I still continuing to learn, but the team at the office have made my settling-in to NYC even more easy, with their supportive work-ethic and friendship! The advertising industry is one that I never even thought about (mainly just because, again, my previous knowledge of how it all worked was minimal), but it is incredibly creative and the aspects involved with analyzing music and film, deciding what might fit and (for the on-site composers), having to produce something for a deadline, with certain criteria, is amazing to be a part of. It’s also giving me the chance to get to grips with the technology side of music and writing, something I always wanted to do, but never had time to knuckle down to during school.

So, fingers crossed that I get to be a part of this experience a little longer…!

I’m really going to try my best to update more regularly from now on, it’s not that hard an activity to do, really! So, watch this space for a Leah Gough-Cooper news update near you!

Hello Folks!

Yes, I am ashamed to say it has been an awfully long time since I gave an update on my latest adventures, and to those of you who visit this website now and again, I apologise a trillion-fold! It’s been pretty much a year – I am a terrible person, I know…

This last year has been a bit of a trip, with some amazingly cool things happening, but also some big changes for myself and also my family and friends. I was going to go into enormous detail about it all, like a chapter from a book, but I decided against it for the meantime. I may publish it for public view in the near future, but for now I just want to let you all know of upcoming projects and other cool things that will be going down in the next few months!

Keep an eye out for my newest project and group, The Janus Quintet. Don’t worry – Human Equivalent are still in the stratosphere, but seeing as many of us will be moving in different directions over the course of the next year or so, I decided to take teeny-tiny break. Plus, I’ve been dabbling with a new instrumentation with this more recent project, incorporating tenor sax into the mix instead of guitar. I adore guitar. Timbre-wise, however, I’m finding some cool new sounds with a 2-horn line-up.
SO, Monday April 11th 2011, we will be performing at the New England Conservatory @ 8pm, in Brown Hall. It is in fact part of my Senior Graduate Recital (as part of my Masters) and will have 2 sets, one of which will have acoustic bass, the other electric.
Check out my gig schedule for the line-up – it’s going to be fantastic! I may even get some tracks recorded for your listening pleasure, if not for a newer release…!

So, what happens after school?
NYC, baby! Well, that’s the plan, anyway. I’m hoping to venture on down to the Big Apple, play plenty of music, perhaps even teach a little and live in the artist environment! I’m currently working a little with a fantastic piano player, Noah MacNeil, originally from the Mass. area. I was fortunate enough to gig with him in Harlem this past weekend at The Shrine and keep an eye out for Banda Magda, led by Greek Singer/Songwriter Magda Giannikou, and also another fantastic piano player, Yuki Shibata. These are sure to be (if not already) regular performers in the NYC scene.
I’m also doing some collaboration work (when we both get it fitted into our busy schedules) with Electronic artist Rudi Zygadlo. Again, did some Sax work on his last album and we’re hoping to do some live performances for a month or two this coming summer, back at home in the U.K., if not in Europe!

And lastly, keep an eye out for an emerging Company, Art Shape. Can’t go into too much more detail about it just now, but I will be most definitely filling you in on it all when the Company takes off and what I’ll be doing as part of it…!

Right, better be off to a rehearsal! I shall back for more updates and maybe some backstory for the past year very, very soon! X

Leah Gough-Cooper’s Human Equivalent – Future Pop

Dumfries-born, Boston-based saxophonist Leah Gough-Cooper’s debut album shares three musicians with drummer Patrick Kunka’s album (reviewed a couple of issues back), and merits equally high praise. While certainly accessible, Gough-Cooper’s intelligently crafted music is way too intense to be a credible future pop, nice though that notion is, but open-minded rock/pop/funk/dance fans may well connect with what is going on here.

The saxophonist’s fluent and inventive work on alto and soprano is supported by responsive and focused ensemble playing and strong soloing from the band, featuring Kunka and pianist Alan Benzie (prominent on Fender Rhodes and electric keyboards as well as piano) alongside guitarist Serghio Jansen and bassist Martin Nessi. George Garzone, a leading figure in the Berklee College faculty, is a special guest on tenor saxophone on ‘Night Surf’.

Kenny Mathieson – The List, 29 March 2010.

With nine instrumentals and an average duration of six minutes, several lead instruments, complex rhythm sections and vague titles that makes you wonder what they were smoking before they made up the set list, calling your album “Future Pop” might be a bit optimistic. However, Leah Gough-Cooper and her band Human Equivalent do have their reasons to be optimistic. Ever since she started out, Gough-Cooper has been hailed as the new jazz sensation and given this album, that’s not a surprise. Entering the world of jazz college only five years ago, when she was sixteen years old, the young saxophonist has been invited to many a jazz festival and played with many a known musician. Drawing inspiration from Frank Zappa and Bjork as much as from Wayne Shorter and Michael Brecker, Gough-Cooper didn’t take the easy way, but it pays out on her band’s album debut.

Though it’s her name featuring on the album cover and Human Equivalent is definitely her band, ‘Future Pop’ is nothing like a solo album. It is, in fact, quite surprising how small a role she’s got on her own album. Opener ‘Future Pop’ sees her collaborating on an exciting piece of jazz psychedelics, with her and guitarist Serghio Jansen firing away the solo’s on the rhythmic sounds of the Rhodes piano. With the calming ‘Only a Matter of Time’ and the lounge music of ‘Leaf Blower’ in between, where pianist Alan Benzie serves as the main contributor, it’s only on ‘Hollywood Ghost Dance’ and ‘Politix Street’ that she’s the one shining out.

Luckily for her, ‘Politix Street’ is the highlight of ‘Future Pop’. ‘Hollywood Ghost Dance’ is an amazing piece of fusion – combining soundtrack, pop, jazz and experimental rock – with drummer Patrick Kunka and guitarist Jansen highlighting the lot. But it’s the nervous breakdown jazz of ‘Politix Street’, once again with Jansen and Benzie having a prominent role, that shows why Human Equivalent is Gough-Cooper’s band. Rather than being egocentric and the main musical contributor, she only plays when necessary and inspired. But rather than just releasing a collection of improvisational pieces, songs like ‘Hollywood Ghost Dance’ and ‘Politix Street’ are quite epic and so much more than the regular jazz composition. Gough-Cooper’s quality doesn’t lie in her talents as saxophonist only, it’s as a songwriter that she really stands out.

In a way, the album title is not as overoptimistic as it sounded at first. After all, before Elvis made the blues rock and roll, jazz was the youngsters wild musical anthem and with so much originality hidden in her songs, Gough-Cooper does give jazz an edge of excitement again. A new jazz revolution taking over the world doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon though, but in her own jazz land, it wouldn’t come as a surprise that she will be seen as an established name any day now.

- Floris Stoter – AltSounds.com March 28, 2010, 02:23 PM

This is amongst the best modern jazz I have heard…. I will be playing it on my Monday night programme on Diverse FM, and be recommending it to others. – Tony Catanzaro, DJ and Presenter.

Young Scottish saxophonist Leah Gough-Cooper has come a long way since she won an international scholarship to Berklee College of Music aged just 16. Still only 20, 2009 found her releasing her second album and playing at the London Jazz Festival. Supported in Human Equivalent by guitar, bass, keys and drums, Future Pop was recorded in Brooklyn, New York. On such a self-composed set it’s good to hear the other members of such an obviously talented band featuring significantly, although of course the main feature is Leah’s athletic technique on sax. Beware, it’s so dynamic it might scramble your brain if modern jazz is not your cup of tea. – Alan Taylor.

Leah Gough-Cooper’s Human Equivalent ‘Future Pop’ (three stars)
Leah Gough-Cooper (as,ss), Serghio Jansen (g), Alan Benzie (p, Rhodes, kys), Martin Nessi (b) and Patrick Kunka (dr)

A Scottish band made up of former Berklee students and young award winning Scottish jazz musicians is fronted by a saxophonist-composer barely out of her teens. This makes the level of musicianship on this CD all the more astonishing. Style-wise it’s largely jazz-rock fusion given a vigorous makeover. Because it’s a sub-genre of jazz in which a very high level of notes and musicianship is essential it’s no surprise it has its devotees in the rehearsal corridors of Berklee – for evidence listen to Hiromi’s band. Yet, Gough-Cooper’s lyrical alto sax seems also to have absorbed M-Base-type odd metered cryptic patterns and some of the impressive drummer’s bustling grooves certainly demonstrate a line through to drum and bass and hip hop. Nevertheless Future Pop – not sure what that’s meant to say about it – inherits more directly from the world of Return to Forever, the keyboard impressionism of Weather Report, with some 1980s Marcus Miller-style funk thrown in. It’s hardly the most original of causes, but the band manages to attain a high quality of musicianship without sacrificing any of their youthful high spirits. Selwyn Harris

http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com

公告單位 文化局 上一頁

新聞標題 開春好聲響，匯聚世界各國好樂手，共響嘉義國際管樂 公告日期：2010/1/1
網際連結
新聞內容好的節慶絕對不會孤單，總能引起四方共鳴。今年邁向第十八屆的嘉義市國際管樂節，有來自美國、日本、泰國、新加坡、內蒙古等五國10隊的國外樂團前來共襄盛舉。其中，來自美國的美國類人樂團Human Equivalent Band，更是為了參與今年的嘉義市國際管樂節特別號召來七位自美國、蘇格蘭、南美洲的阿魯巴及智利等四個國家的管樂傑出好手，所組成的一個精兵管樂團。嘉義管樂節跨海來台在1/1音樂廳，以及1/2中正公園的二場精采演出，讓嘉義市民欣賞到絕佳的管樂美聲。

2007年夏天，美國類人樂團Human Equivalent Band由目前就讀Berklee College of Music(美國波士頓的音樂學院)身懷音樂絕技的高材生所組成的樂團。薩克斯風樂手首兼作曲家的Leah Gough-Cooper歷經童年時期爵士、搖滾、嘻哈、放克的淬練，在進入美國波士頓的音樂學院兩年後，即開始為樂團創作，直到現在，他仍不斷挑戰各團員的演奏技能，以及自我的音樂創作極限。

「類人」樂團演奏的風格，既含括沙發音樂及放克的元素，同時也兼有成熟的扎帕風(Zappa)，團員們洋溢的音樂才華，在他們百分百的演奏默契中充分地流露。而類人樂團的演奏風格，也受到不同演奏風格的音樂家含括Herbie Hancock到The Weather Report，以及前衛派的Frank Zappa所影響，再經過團員們的吸收並重新創作詮釋後，成為美國類人樂團自身獨樹一格的演出新風格。樂團在探尋爵士樂的路上，以一種激進兼具實驗性的方式，作為他們詮釋心中音樂風貌的表演形式，在創新與顛覆的音樂演出中，也不失對傳統音樂的堅持與喜愛。

原為五部爵士樂團，Human Equivalent:EAST則是特別為嘉義國際管樂節組成的樂團，每個團員都曾與爵士大師如Terri Lyne Carrington，Fred Wesley，Randal Corsen及Barry Eastmond合演過，樂手來自世界各地：蘇格蘭的薩克斯風樂手Leah Gough-Cooper，來自南美洲自治國阿魯巴的電吉他手Serghio Jansen，以及智利的貝斯手Martin Nessi，各個樂手都有著令人拍手叫絕的拿手演奏本領。

鼓手Massimo Buonanno (曾與Freda Goodlet 及 John Mayer合作)、鋼琴手Chad Selph，小號Vivek Patel (Alex Brown, Paquito DRivera), 打擊樂Arturo Pena (Orquestra Bacharengue)。

開春不可不聽的跨越國界的管樂好旋律。一起聆聽美國類人樂團以他們前衛不失傳統，搖滾不失純真，爵士中帶著個性的管樂合奏，隨著來自世界不同國家的年輕音樂好手，用充滿朝氣與能量的氣勢，以好音樂迎接新的一年。

http://infoagent.cisanet.org.tw/bouns_txt.aspx?ID=c2e3ffc5-973b-4c31-8629-fe3108f9c418

This New Year was a very special one for myself and some of my band members. During the summer, I had been approached by a Taiwanese arts promotion company by the name of CSR-Taiwan at a gig I was playing in at the Edinburgh Festival. They expressed their interest in having some of us over to Taiwan to play at some point in the future. Keeping in contact with them over the next few months thereafter, I was astonished when they asked if it would be possible to bring a band over to Taiwan for the New Year Celebration and the Music Festival they have in the city of Chiayi. <http://www.chiayicity2009.com.tw/en/02/page01.html> I have never been to Asia, and for the longest time it has been a destination I have always wanted to travel to, so I took up the offer and set about getting a group together that would fit their needs.
Human Equivalent is usually a quintet, but because CSR-Taiwan had a quota to stick to, and the festival is basically a wind band festival, I had to bring in a few more musicians in order for them to be able fund the trip. So, after much brainstorming and re-arranging of my music and compositions, I put a prime Berklee/NEC supergroup together:
Serghio Jansen, Guitar (Berklee ’10), Martin Nessi, Bass (Berklee ’10), Massimo Buonanno, Drums (Berklee ’10), Chad ‘Aaron Notes’ Selph, Keyboard and Piano (Berklee ’11), Arturo Pena, Percussion (Berklee ’10), Vivek Patel, Trumpet (NEC ’08) and special guest Kunter Chang, Tenor Saxophone (Berklee ’01).
After intensive rehearsing in Boston MA, we all headed home for Christmas and then from each of our countries (Scotland, Dominican Republic, Aruba, Columbia, Switzerland & USA), we set off on the long journey to Taiwan on the 28th & 29th December 2009.
None of us really knew what to expect on arrival in Taiwan (none of us had visited Asia before, let alone Taiwan), so there were a few nerves here and there, but – oh boy! – was it ever better than anything we could have expected.

The hospitality of the Taiwanese was beyond amazing, the gigs were massive and the culture was magical. The first night, we played the Chiayi Civil Stadium filled with a crowd of Chiayi’s youth and festival goers; the second night, again in the open air, we played to a huge enthusiastic crowd under a half-dome in Zhong-Cheng Park, one of the city’s bigger parks; and the third night we played in a concert hall, the Culture Division Music Hall.
Every audience was an honor to play to, and CSR-Taiwan and the Chiayi Executive Mayor, Cultural Minister and Mayor were all a pleasure to work with and meet (this includes Felice, Arielle, Chung and two new friends of ours, Vicky and Elly).
On behalf of Human Equivalent:EAST, I would like to thank them all for the wonderful experience we all had, and look forward hopefully to bringing our music to Taiwan and the Far East again in the near future. A full report of the visit will be online soon.