|
|
|
|
 ↑ Grab this Headline Animator
|
|
THEATRE
Jonny
Cooper Orchestra
Venue: Theatre on the Bay, Link St, Camps Bay. Tel: (021) 438
3300
Time: Wed- Fri @ 8:00pm, Sat @ 3:00pm & 8:00pm
Price: R90 - R150
Performances: 10 Jun - 4 Jul 2009
Genre: Big Band/ Swing
|
|
Take a trip down memory lane with the
internationally acclaimed Jonny Cooper Orchestra, South Africa’s
“Ambassadors of Big Band Music” a title bestowed upon them by the
trustees of the Big Band Hall of Fame in Miami for perpetuating, promoting
and performing the sounds of the Big Band era with integrity.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the
orchestra and as the saying goes ‘time flies when you’re having fun’. It
was back in 1993 that a small advert appeared in a Cape Town newspaper
inviting local musicians to join a rehearsal band to play Big Band Swing
music. According to Jonny Cooper, the founder of the orchestra, the phone
rang off the hook as musicians from all walks of life responded to the ad
and came together with one thing in common, a passion for Big Band Swing
music. An invitation to a local event gave them their first public
performance with a grand repertoire of just six songs, and little did they
know this was the start to the most successful Big Band in South African
history, the Jonny Cooper Orchestra.
|
article continues below
|
|
|
Jonny, himself an IT professional at that time,
was driven by a life long passion to lead a professional Big Band. Working
by day in IT and by night as a band leader, he had little time for
anything else. 1996 saw the release of the bands first CD ‘At Last’
followed by “Legends Of Swing” in 2001. The orchestra started to receive
international attention and was signed to Prestige Elite records in
London. Jonny resigned from his IT job to focus on his dream and has never
looked back. The resurgence of Big Band Swing, thanks to contemporary
icons such as Robbie Williams, Michael Buble, Rod Stewart and Westlife,
has led to an endless string of performances playing to full houses
throughout South Africa.
In 2002 the third CD “ Just Like That”
featuring vocal standards from Frank Sinatra and other Swing icons pushed
home the popularity of the orchestra's appeal to young and old alike. In
2004 Glenn Miller Productions from the United States recognized the Jonny
Cooper Orchestra and appointed them as the official Glenn Miller Orchestra
South Africa, one of only three official orchestra’s in the world leading
to the release of their fourth album “A Portrait of Glenn Miller”.
To celebrate the success of the past 15 years
the orchestra has recently released their fifth album “Swing Safari”
uniquely reworking a selection of well known African and Afrikaans songs
into the 1940’s Swing genre receiving great reviews and airplay in Europe.
|
|
|
