Les Hooper

Born in Louisiana and with time in Chicago and Los Angeles, Les Hooper has written for many different mediums over the years. A string of TV shows, movies, albums, and orchestral commissions along with a big band – with 7 Grammy nominations to his credit, Les has achieved the variety he has longed for. And on top of this his mainstay is commercials. Mercedes, Reebok, Delta, IBM, Acura just to name a few, the credits are lengthy.
The first big band album from Chicago, “Look What They’ve Done” won him 3 Grammy nominations alone. It was the first of six big band albums. Three small band albums (HOOPLA) and some arranging credits for groups like The Singers Unlimited, Don Ellis and Ben Sidran have added to his disc list.
Les’ band appeared in the Robert Altman film, “The Player” and on the Grammy awards show from New York. He has written the score to films like “Back in the USSR” and “Roadflower,” has had music in “Being John Malkovich”, “Any Given Sunday” along with several TV shows.
In addition to many published jazz arrangements and compositions over the years, there have also been orchestral commissions and wind ensemble pieces. He has judged the Downbear student awards for over ten years. Les majored in music composition at LSU and has taught at Idylwild Music Camp in California for the past 12 years. Les’ albums, plus more information, is available at www.leshooper.com.