Richard W. Cooper
Bright Ideas for a Better Tomorrow (Quark Nugget)
Clever titles on instrumentals are a double-edged sword. Sure, it’s amusing to pick up a CD and read off names like “Vicka’s House of Plastic,” “Dance of the Geminids,” and “Jackalopes in the Yard,” but odds are, you’re gonna have some preconceived notion of what those songs sound like before you even hear them. Cooper’s keyboard instrumentals, true to form, don’t really sound as far out as the titles would imply, but they’re still a lot of fun. Mostly piano-based, Bright Ideas for a Better Tomorrow is a sprightly, mid-afternoon type of album, with its synthier numbers being nothing that would scare an old Windham Hill listener, but it’s the more organic tunes that are the highlight. Cooper’s piano originals pump along like a lost Peanuts special, just a touch more jolly and less jazzy than Vince Guaraldi’s finest, but something to bring out the kid, or the bright ideas, in you.
This article appears in September 8 • 2000.