Leslie Cooper brings a lifetime of traditional jazz heritage to the stage. Raised in Mississippi in a musical family — her mother a vocalist, her stepfather a reed-playing bandleader — she spent her childhood weekends in New Orleans clubs, sitting on the floor at Preservation Hall at age eight watching Sweet Emma Barrett. After many years in the health care field, including a nursing career cut short by a hand injury, she returned to the music she never stopped loving.
Cooper hosts the Tuesday morning traditional jazz program on WWOZ, a post she has held for over a decade, and performs in clubs around New Orleans, partnering with pianist Harry Mayronne and often sharing the stage with her son, trumpeter and tuba player Doyle Cooper. She is a founding leader of the New Orleans Traditional Jazz Camp, which brings adults to the city to learn and play with local musicians, and she was honored by WWL-TV as a Neighborhood Hero in 2019 for providing instruments to New Orleans kids through her Pass It On NOLA program.
As Entertainment Director at Buffa's Bar & Restaurant on Esplanade Avenue, Cooper keeps the room's trad jazz calendar humming. She has also been recording her first record, Didn't See That Coming, joined by a who's who of New Orleans players — Reggie Scanlan, Kirk Joseph, Doyle Cooper, Papa Mali, Josh Paxton, and Andre Bohren among them.
