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Whilst on holiday on the Portuguese Algarve around three
years ago I stumbled over saxophonist Johnny Hooper playing
in the town square in Albufeira old town. A couple of mornings
each week during the tourist season, Johnny and his wife
Sue set up a small stand and Johnny entertains the holiday-makers
playing sax along with the accompaniment of now routinely
utilized backing-tracks. Sue would hand out leaflets and
sell his CDs to the masses who would take the opportunity
to take a  rest
and listen to Johnny's wide repertoire of popular jazz
styled music.
There are now nine CDs available in Hooper's catalogue.
Suitably impressed by his musical talents and repertoire
I made myself known to Johnny and Sue and purchased a couple
of CDs, which I use in my weekly radio show 'Swing's The
Thing'.
During the winter months….December to February, Sue
Hooper organises a U.K. tour for Johnny which gives the
many people who have enjoyed listening to Hooper's music
while on holiday the opportunity to see him again. There
are about twelve gigs on this current tour around the country
plus some private work and it was at one of these venues…The
Kingsway Hotel, Rochdale that I took the opportunity to
renew my acquaintance with Johnny Hooper and enjoy an evening
listening to his exquisite playing and to have a chat with
him about his musical career.
Although Johnny was making a living out of his music
in the U.K., he felt he was not really going anywhere with
it. He comments; "It's kind of hard to make a living
if you come from my musical background, which is not having
any formal musical education…teaching myself…starting to
play on the street…selling CDs on the street and trying
to get work." Although Hooper was playing with a band
at that time and was getting a few gigs, it wasn't enough
to sustain a reasonable living. One summer Johnny and Sue
decided to take an adventurous trip; "We rented our
house out, bought a  motorhome
and my wife and I drove around Europe with a saxophone looking
for work." Hooper continues; "We ended up in Portugal,
got some gigs there and we enjoyed it so much that we would
go back each year for a few years and eventually we sold
the house and ended up down there." During the tourist
season thousands of people fly into the Algarve; "There
is a new audience every week with tourists landing and taking
off, so you get your regulars who come out once or twice
a year sometimes, and you get the new people all the time.
So I decided to record a new album every other year and
try to make it go from there." At the weekend Hooper
was found playing at a nearby restaurant The Cave, just
a couple of streets away from the town square. With pride
Hooper states; "It's been eleven years now!!! The Cave's
been great and I've met a lot of great people from all over
Europe and work comes from that. Last night for example,
I played at somebody's 50th birthday who saw me quite a
few years ago over there and had the memory of a nice evening
and kindly booked us to do their party."
Around twenty years ago Hooper co-founded and played
with a Reggae Band. Johnny recalls; "We did O.K. to
start with, we worked very hard gig-wise! We didn't get
a record deal, but we produced a record ourselves with some
money that somebody lent us and got it done with Bob Lamb
from Birmingham, who produced UB40…it was that kind of music.
Our manager at the time (from the Rochdale area) managed
to our demos around London, record companies and radio stations
and got us quite a bit of interest. We got played on Radio
1 a few times back in the 1980's, but we never really got
a deal after that and it all just fell apart and I ended
up busking around the underground in London." I laughingly
commented that Johnny could have done much worse than that,
but his  sceptical
reply was simply "Not much worse!!!"
One of Johnny Hooper's CDs is a 15 track live performance
entitled 'The Johnny Hooper Band - Live At The
Watermill'. It gives the listener an ideal insight to a
musical evening with Johnny Hooper complete with the band. I asked
Johnny how this recording came about. "That's a place in Surrey
and again…my wife who organises the gigs, the tickets and and all
the promotion booked that venue. There was a nice crowd in, I'd put
the band together for a few gigs that week…the third gig was the
Watermill and we recorded it." Johnny continues; "The band
is made up of friends who are session players basically, at the
moment I haven't got my main guys…..my first choice guys because
they are busy doing other things, but there's a pool of guys back
home in South Wales who are ready and willing to do a gig and that's
been nice….working with some new musicians. I've got a brand new
guitarist who I'm meeting soon for the gigs with the band…I'm
looking forward to that as I can put a different slant on things.
In November 2003 Johnny Hooper recorded his eagerly awaited
new CD 'Secret Jewels', which
is being eagerly snapped-up by his many fans here in the
U.K. There are 12 tracks on the album with  the
title track was written by Johnny. Another track on the
album is "Rise", which was written by Randy Alpert
(the nephew of Herb Alpert). "I had a nice e-mail a
few months ago from Randy…."Rise"
was a Grammy award winning tune from 1979. You pay your
royalties when you record an album and my name must have
popped up on their screen and Randy contacted me saying
that he would like to buy a copy of my new CD. (Johnny laughingly
states) As he is the composer I thought that I'd better
send him a complimentary copy. I got a lovely response from
him and he said some nice things and said that he would
be playing the track to Herb Alpert (I'm waiting on that!).
He also knows Steve Cropper who wrote "Green
Onions" and "Knock
On Wood", which are on my live album and he
said that he'd be playing that when he is next in the studio.
Randy is a top record producer in California and has worked
with everyone. So it was a big thrill for me to get a response
for my cover version of his song!!!"
Originally from around Newport in Gwent, South Wales, Johnny
Hooper's headquarters is still based
there incorporating his CD mail order business, which is
all kept in the family; (with a laugh) "That's my mom!!!
It all sounds very quaint, and it is! It all sounds too
quaint to be true, and at this time in my life you think,
well when am I going to get to the bigger audience, but
it's still very quaint…mom doing the mail orders and my
wife doing most of the work behind the scene and I'm still
blowing and trying to make a living and get to that bigger
audience." The sale of CDs is a key factor in the Johnny
Hooper design. "I do very well with the CDs with loyal
fans that buy the new one as soon as it comes out and we
make an average living from the sale of CDs! There are a
few radio presenters playing Johnny's music on their shows,
but he readily admits; "I never really aggressively
tried to push my thing around….maybe I should have done
a few years ago and that's probably why it's so quaint at
the moment!" A new album is in the works, but Johnny
was very guarded as not to give anything away…."I have
a few little ideas on the go, (laughs) I don't really want
to say anything about it in case it doesn't come off , but
I'll definitely be doing something in the next 12-18 months!!!"
www.johnnyhooper.com
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