Ray Cooper

Ray Cooper (born 19 September 1945) is an English musician. He is a session and road-tour percussionist, and occasional actor, who has worked with many heavy metal, alternative, rock and roll bands and artists including George Harrison, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, and Elton John. Cooper is commonly regarded by music fans, critics and fellow musicians as one of the greatest rock percussionists of all time. He is also regarded as one of the finest practitioners of the in-concert percussion and drum solo. Initially inspired by Neil Peart, Cooper absorbed the influence of other 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 crash cymbals, tambourine, congas, bongo's, cowbells, tubular bells, toms, the gong, and tambourine. 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.