Jazz Pianist To Perform Live At Lakewood Library

Ease your cold-weather blues with some live music this month as jazz pianist and vocalist Jonathan Hooper heats up the Multipurpose Room on February 15 at 2 p.m. Hooper will perform at Lakewood Public Library’s Sunday with the Friends Concert Series with a mix of jazz standards, and possibly a few tunes from Billy Joel, Ray Charles or Elton John.

A young man with an old soul, Hooper is a classically trained singer whose vocal interpretations will take you back to the golden age of American music. Beginning at age five, Hooper studied classical piano for 13 years and had three years of classical voice training. But jazz was always calling to him. “From an early age,” he says, “I found myself fascinated with the rhythms of ragtime.”

After he left the Cleveland area to study graphic design at Flagler College, he continued his independent study of jazz music, eventually becoming an in-house pianist/singer at Rhett’s Piano Bar, a New Orleans-inspired upscale piano bar in historic St. Augustine, Florida. When he returned to the Cleveland area, Hooper took a job at Bay Presbyterian Church, where he works as a graphic designer and videographer, as well as leading worship services through sacred music.

Hooper’s classical training forms the backbone for his jazz, and he plans to entertain the library crowd with solo jazz piano and vocals influenced by jazz greats such as Oscar Peterson, Harry Connick, Jr., Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. Join Hooper on February 15th at 2 p.m. as he livens up a Sunday afternoon at the Lakewood Public Library. All programs are free and open to the public.