Jack Cooper is a composer, arranger, saxophonist, and the Pearl Wales Professor of Jazz Studies and Commercial Music at the University of Memphis Scheidt School of Music where he teaches composition, arranging, and instrumental and vocal jazz ensembles. Cooper serves as Staff Writer for the Berlin Jazz Orchestra; he wrote, arranged, and conducted all 11 tracks for their current release "Songs of Berlin". He served in the sax section and as Staff Writer for the U.S. Army Jazz Knights for 6 years, and for over 20 years as Staff Arranger for CCP Belwin and Warner Brother Publishing. Cooper’s 2014 album Mists: The Music of Charles Ives for Jazz Orchestra (Planet Arts), featured Terell Stafford, Luis Bonilla, Scott Wendholt, and Billy Drewes, amongst others.