ELLEN COOPER

ELLEN COOPER

"So Much Joy"
Release date: June 7th, 2019

Ellen Cooper

Singer/Songwriter Ellen Cooper is a strong, spiritual and socially purposed African American woman, raised up righteous to be a striver and an achiever. A fully rounded and broadly knowledgeable Los Angeles, California native, her roots are that of “education comes first” yet with music and arts having a strong placement in her life as shapers and reflectors of who she is as a human being. Across the decades, Ellen attended USC, San Diego State and UCLA, studied sound engineering and business administration, certified in computer science, been a troubleshooter for Sega Genesis Gaming, worked for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, started the health and wellness company Crebar LLC (Health & Wellness)…and passionately provided caregiving for both of her aging parents as only an only child can do. Throughout all of this, she has nurtured her creative muse singing on the side – from a funky tea house just off Crenshaw Blvd. in L.A. to a soul food palace in China. This dichotomy reached a boiling point whenever someone she worked for happened to see her sing. Responses ranged from, “Why are you working with us” to “You’re fired – get on with your real career!” 

Well, in 2019, Ellen Cooper is finally – blessedly - doing just that.

With her inaugural single “So Much Joy” – lovingly dedicated to her husband - songwriter/producer/vocalist Ellen Cooper is officially entering the music marketplace to take her rightful place in the lineage of evergreen singing goddesses such as Phoebe Snow, Randy Crawford, Angela Bofill and Anita Baker. Crafting a gentle, thought-provoking blend of Jazz, Soul and Gospel, she promises to be a welcome and needed voice of feminine maturity in a contemporary music scene starving for it.

Ellen Cooper’s debut project (title tbd) is a concept album – songs like puzzle pieces that, when put together, present a portrait of the God within us all. “The Garden” is a re-examination of the Bible’s “Adam & Eve” story. “Rivers” is a journey into one’s internal life while “In This Very Room” explores how we need to stoke our own fire before we try to inspire the world at large. “Martin” poses questions concerning whether Reverend Dr. King’s dream - as well as the those of similar luminaries - is still alive within us today. “Fairy Tales,” about a relationship that wasn’t true, offers the yang to the yin of the blissful “So Much Joy.” Add covers of the Jazz standard “My Funny Valentine” and the `80s pop anthem “That’s What Friends Are For” (penned by Burt Bacharach & Carole Bayer Sager) and you get a fine first effort rich with meaning and substance.

“As my ‘first fruit’ album, this one will be different than any other one I do,” Cooper shares. “Though I started on it five years ago, I’ve really been working on this all my life. The purpose is to make you look at your spiritual life in a deeper light… I wanted to make sure that if I became the artist that I’m meant to be, I would not be flossing. That when Ellen Cooper had a mic in her hand, I would have something to say in depth. I’m very measured with the things that I say. I don’t want to waste people’s time. I want to be uplifting, make a difference, and for the elders to be proud.”

According to her mother, Ellen came out the womb a happy child…and singing. Among her fondest childhood memories is lying on the floor, cuddled in her father’s arms with all the lights out listening to Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane, Beethoven and Bach. Along with the Gospel she heard from her grandmother, this is the music that stirred her young soul. However, though her family encouraged appreciation of music, they did not support it as a career. They did not perceive their baby girl on the chitlin circuit. Ellen was sent to school to study business.

The icicles of shade on music as a career for Ellen began to melt one day in the `90s when her father came to see Ellen perform at an art gallery in Leimert Park. “I was so nervous my hands were sweaty,” she recalls. “My father had a very stoic personality. To see him clapping and laughing was so special...” 

Ellen has since dibbled and dabbled in music. She learned the Tagalog language to pursue gigs in the Philippines. She recorded an indie live CD, Raw and Uncut, at L.A. Third Church in Leimert Park. She’s been a background vocalist for many other artists and sung on more demos than she can count. Then in 2014, upon her return from a string of music gigs in China, Ellen began the process of putting her album together. She’s been running up and down the California coast - from Carmel to Culver City - to make it happen…including the devastation of having it nearly completed only for the digital files to become deleted and destroyed. Well, you know what they say: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

“My prayer is for healing,” Ellen concludes. “I feel like if I want to see more positive things in music, I need to do my part. Maybe I can take up the torch that Nipsey Hussle had in his hands to show people in my own hood that we are better than we give ourselves credit for. I live off of inspiration. If I can get people to look within, we the people of this planet can be the best we can ever be.”
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Ellen Cooper new single "So Much Joy" 
Release Date: June 7th, 2019
VIDEO 

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