Sound Travels by Jessie Allen Cooper is a selection of music picked from a collection of over one hundred songs written and recorded over the last fourteen years. I sat with Doug Ross, the bass player on this project, and we hand-picked our favorites. Some needed to be totally rerecorded and some were close to being complete. My goal was to pick songs that fit together to give the listener a diversified sound experience.
A journey filled with multi-ethnic overtones, combining the talents of musicians that have studied different rhythms, instruments, and composition techniques from all over the world. This album has brought about a new level of creative participation for me. For the first time, I personally acted as the recording engineer on most of the performances, including those of my own. Being involved with the timing, and performance of each instrument and musician made the creative process especially rewarding. My personal relationships with the musicians and technical support team were better than ever making the reward even richer than before.