Meet Me At The Copa Again

Sam Cooke: If I Had a Hammer
from Sam Cooke at the Copa (ABCKO 1964)

Sam Cooke: This Little Light of Mine
from Sam Cooke at the Copa (ABCKO 1964)

Sam Cooke: Tennessee Waltz
from Sam Cooke at the Copa (ABCKO 1964)


Sam Cooke at the Copa is a significant album, not for the performance per se (it's nowhere near as intense as his Harlem Square Club performance), but because it is one of the few live recordings of Cooke that's readily available and because of that fact, it should be required listening for any fan of good music. It's also a sort of prodigal homecoming for Cooke who first performed at the Copa in 1958 but at the time left the crowd and critics less than half satisfied. I posted before on Sam Cooke and gushed about how fiery and soulful a live performer he is, but on this recording, playing to a mostly white audience, he is a lot more restrained though still an effective performer, and his ability to interpret a lyric masterfully is still present.

Listening to the first track If I Had A Hammer, a folk hit for The Weavers and later for Peter, Paul and Mary, one can hear that even a largely white audience reluctant to drop the veneer of decorum fall prey to Sam's ability to control a crowd. Picking himself up gracefully after missing a lyric early on, Cooke first leads the band in a call and response and then tries to coax the reluctant crowd into singing along. It takes a couple of verses but let's face it, with Cooke's gospel background and angelic voice, it's a wonder that it took the crowd that long to get into it.

This Little Light Of Mine is a gospel song that opens with a low chorus that sets the pace for the song. Finger snapping his way through it, Cooke is the reverend through and through and leads the band to its conclusion as it builds to a crescendo and then quickly brings itself low again and ends with a call and response. The final song is one that should be easily recognizable if any other singer covered it, but Cooke's rendition of the Patty Page classic is sped up to a frenetic and soulful pace, which he even acknowledges as the song opens. The song is beautifully interpreted not only by Cooke, listen to his improvisations, but also by the conductor Rene Hall who sets the tempo and instrumentation perfectly to go along with the lyrics, building the song up to not only accentuate the feeling but also to allow Cooke his graceful bowing out of the concert.

Recorded just five months prior to his death, Sam Cooke at the Copa is a fascinating piece of work. When juxtaposed with his recording at the Harlem Club the albums are like night and day, seemingly two mutually exclusive phenomena but they are in fact an inclusive portrait of the man as a performer: powerful, captivating soulful and musically inclined towards sublimity. And despite having to cater his performance towards the largely white audience, it is still as effective and as breathtaking as you would expect.