Yo everybody!
A month ago I came back from my recent six months trip around the world. I am a big believer in traveling and exploring our great world and I always combine that with my passion for music.
I carry around my Washburn guitar and some small percussion instruments, jam with people I meet and always on the lookout for the best musical happenings around. When I feel like it and get the muse, I also sit down and write some songs.
My stops on my recent trip in 2014 were the US, where I was living 2 months in New Orleans, and then traveled by buses and planes all over the country in more than 30 states, while making sure to stop in every city that's a music capital along the way. From California I boarded a plane to New Zealand where I rented a van and traveled around this beautiful country for almost 3 months, and capped it off with in 2 weeks in Japan. In between, I will also attach some photos that I took during my previous USA coast to coast trip in 2013. The pictures will be mostly in chronological order.
I hope I will successfully give you the taste of my travels, and maybe you will even find it inspiring to go out, save money and do so yourself.
For your complete viewing experience – you are more than welcome to play the beautiful folky soundtrack of “Inside Llewin Davis” in the background or anything else that you call travel music and gets you in the travels and adventures mood!
Please feel free to link to your similar galleries in the comments, ask questions or anything that comes to your mind, have fun.
Arriving to New Orleans in early June. Excited to see the skyline of the world's jazz music capital, located down in the southern USA – State Of Louisiana. The next 2 months are going to be packed with awesome music, especially jazz, rock and blues.
NOLA is famous for the crazy brass bands that are sure to keep you on your feet
New Orleans life – kickin' it and playing music on the Mississippi river.
Smooth jazz that makes you feel like we\re back in the 1930's
This quote by Bob Dylan says it all. If you love music and you have a chance – go there. You'll love it! The vibes are incomparable, the people are so nice and easy, everybody's in constant party mode, the music is always in the air…
In early August I headed north. After a few stops I got to Nashville, Tennessee – the best place to catch live country music. Nashville's main street, Broadway Avenue, is packed with live music venues.
Honky Tonk Central in Nashville
Sunset over Memphis, TN – A blues capital and the home of Elvis Presley and B.B King. From there I went up the Mississippi river to…
Open Mic night in Saint Louis, Missouri. Playing “Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay” with a full band for the first time.
“Suited up” jazz in a fancy Kansas City bar. Kansas City, along with New Orleans and New York city is also one of the cities where jazz started developing for the first time in the early 1900's. Home for the very fun American Jazz Museum.
Playing music to some brass seasonings with my friend Ryan that I met in Kansas City. The cover we shot is on my YouTube channel.
Joining friends in the hip VW transporter in Colorado
Jammin' in the van on the way up the Rocky Mountains
Up in the Rockies.
The summer camp where I worked at
Downtown Denver, Colorado. Art covered pianos all over the place, free for public use! I wish every city could be like that.
Classic Vinyl radio station. Awesome tunes as always.
A marching band in the Minnesota state fair. Those kids have some serious discipline when it comes to music.
The California Honeydrops live in The House Of Blues, Chicago.
The show turns into a party where the Honeydrops band members hop into the audience and give us one of the best live music shows I have ever been to. Great group if you are into funky blues.
The Gibson double neck that The Eagles played on the original recording of “Hotel California”. On display in the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame museum in Cleveland, Ohio. This guitar produced solos to the ears of hundreds of millions of people! Astonishing museum by the way.
Back in the east coast. Chillin' with a bike for 2 days in the gorgeous historic town Charleston, South Carolina. Although there's not much music around there, I still had a great time in those hot August days.
“As Tears Go by” with the violin accompaniment.
“Jerry's fine used records”. One of the country's biggest vinyl stores in Pittsburgh, PA. Scored some amazing classic rock records and almost everything for 5$ or less! Some of them ended up as musical gifts for friends.
The west coast. Seattle, Washington. Still a grunge capital. Home of Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana and many other greats.
The flute's out!
San Francisco, California. My last stop in the US.
Landed in NZ in late August – still winter on that side of the planet!
An amazing hostel for musicians and artists called Chillawhile where I was working for a few weeks. If you are ever in the south island of New Zealand, look it up if you want to have some good times with like minded people.
Typical New Zealand landscape. Paradise on earth.
Campfire night on the beach.
Dinner
Campfire jams with people from Denmark and Germany
My awesome Colombian travel companion Luisa Maria.
Check out the cool latin cover that we shot together in one of the most beautiful landscapes I have been to.
Doing my daily practice in Lake Wanaka, NZ.
My home for those 3 months – the Mighty van
My Italian travel friend Angelo – also a truly great guitar and harmonica player
Got to Tokyo, Japan in late November. This city makes New York look pale…
They sure have some great Jazz in Japan! Expensive as fuck though. Music clubs cover prices start at 30$.
Japan is the consumer of more than 10% of musical instruments all over the world! Ochanomizu is Tokyo's music stores district and it has about 20 different music instruments store on one street, some of them are mega stores with 3-4 floors! An unbelievable street for every music lover!
Osaka, Japan. As you can see, the fall foliage was fully on at the time. Osaka was totally devastated after WWII and has been built all over since then.
An Asian music show which was really awesome and exposed me to some new sounds.
Street music in Kyoto.The Japanese language sounds very interesting with an acoustic guitar… Kyoto used to be the capital before Tokyo and it is known as Japan's most beautiful city. It is filled with beautiful temples, some of them were built more than a 1000 years ago.
A Buddhist temple in Kyoto
Hope you enjoyed and got the taste of it, I feel very lucky to be able to do that. As of right now in December 2014, I am back home and already planning and saving for my next long trip.
Thank you for reading!
Peace.
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Alon Cooper
Hey! I'm Cooper, and I hope I can be a helpful friend on your musical journeys. I'm a music artist based in Austin & Amsterdam, playing venues with a band / solo, and trying to learn with the most inspiring musicians wherever I go. In the last 8 years I've lived in Australia, northern Europe, the US and more.
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