Asley Beresford “Grub” Cooper, C.D.,
(Born 26 December 1948)
Composer, Musician, Musical Director, Songwriter, Arranger and Producer

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Asley Beresford Cooper, commonly known as “Grub”, was born on Boxing Day, the 26th of December 1948, in D-Side, Linstead, near Bog Walk, right beside Dinthill High School, St. Catherine. This, at the time, was a soldier camp, and the Cooper family owned part of the land which is now Dinthill Technical High School. His father, Albert Cooper, and his mother, Velma Worrell, separated when he was very young, as his father had numerous women. In fact, Grub would, in subsequent years, discover some 70-odd brothers and sisters belonging to his father. His mother had nine children with his father, with Grub and his brother Conroy having the misfortune of both being born with congenital cataract eye issues. His mother could not take his father’s behaviour anymore and decided to leave with her two sons. This led to Grub spending many years out of a stable family home and eventually to him living a portion of his life at the Salvation Army School for the Blind, which would be the place where his musical journey began. 


Early Musical Years 

Grub spent 12 years at the Salvation Army School for the Blind from 1955 to 1967.  At first was the Salvation Army Institute, but in 1962, the Institute became a school,  now known as the Salvation Army School for the Blind, which allowed students to take local exams. Grub never knew the present location of the School at Mannings Hill Road, as it was a farm, where they would take the students occasionally to do farm work. Grub was never officially trained in music, but had a natural ear and feel for it. His musical journey began when he was taught to play the recorder as a student at the institution, and here he was exposed to learning minimal classical music with Mrs. Carmen Verity.

“At the Salvation Army, we were taught braille first, and then the writing thing came afterwards, because they never knew how long our sight was going to last, so they focused on the braille.  Then, at a certain point, we were taught typing.  But writing is something; if you don’t practice, you will lose, so at this present day, I am not a very good handwriter.  I can type very well and do braille, but handwriting is a challenge.  Occasionally, they would give us music to play with the notes written as letters.  Then once it was written, you basically learnt it by heart, because trying to read it was impossible.   Mr. David Holder, who came from the New Hampshire regiment in London,  was attached to the Jamaica Regiment around 1959.  Two of them came at the same time; they were volunteers.  The other one was Michael Granger.  David was the musician.

Then in 1957, I started playing the recorder, which was just a part of the normal school activities  - virtually everybody learned to play the recorder.  So I started playing the recorder when I was about 9.  The School didn’t have a band at the time, but they had an adult choir, which performed from time to time, and you had people from the army band who would come and do classes, and they would play in the senior band down at the school hall.  But this was not a school band but the Salvation Army Band.  Like the Salvation Army Bands all over the world, it was a brass one, so we learned the recorder and were being taught classical music pieces by Carmen Lawrence, who later became Carmen Verity, the wife of Robert Verity.  So they started to teach us formal music and showed us how to place our fingers and then tell us that note is a G, or a C or an A as the case may be. To reinforce that, she would write the letter on the blackboard.  I used to play the descant recorder and there was also the Tenor recorder, Alto and the Bass recorders.”  - Grub Cooper

Grub was not particularly interested in learning most of the music that was being taught at the school, as it was mostly hymns and classical music. This was despite Mrs. Verity's group winning a competition at the Institute of Jamaica. The group would perform for school concerts and for the annual Christmas concerts. 

Grub was an all-rounder.  Having seen another student playing the harmonica, he thought that it would be a simple instrument to play and took it up with some success in his own spare time.  Grub also became a vocalist, impressing the school's administration enough for them to select him to sing a solo in the Christmas pageant. This led to his participation in the Annual Salvation Army Christmas Concerts. 

“I had no idea about perfect pitch or any of the other things that would disallow people from singing properly.  To me, it was natural.”
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Grub learned to play the trumpet and would play in the church junior band, but became rebellious as he wanted to play popular music and not classical or sacred music. It was a time when ska music was prevalent, and the school would punish any student who was caught playing Jazz, pop, or ska, but this did not deter Grub from being involved. After school hours, he and his friends would listen to the latest tunes on Radio Jamaica Rediffusion (RJR),  listening to the Skatalites and learning the solos that they would play.                    

“I was so much into the new music forms that myself and Trevor Wickes, (the son of the  Manager of the school) had our own sound system. We salvaged sound speakers from anywhere we could and built up our own sound system, and got a little amplifier..I have no idea how Trevor got it and we rigged up the boxes, because Trevor was very technical like that.  We saved up our pocket money and bought a Gerrard turntable, and records down at Prince Buster, including big tunes which had not yet been released.  As soon as we heard something on radio, we gone to buy it. So mornings, as soon as school was finished, me and Trevor would be round at our little place.  We even called it “the Shack” because that was the name of Prince Buster’s Shack.  Our sound system was named 'Count Castro, the Mighty Ruler' and I have no idea where the name came from.  It probably came from Fidel Castro, because there was a popular tune at the time called 'Fidel'.”

The Jamaica School of Agriculture 

“In my head, I just know all things”~ Grub Cooper

On attaining a scholarship, Grub went on to attend the Jamaica School of Agriculture. Here he began to experiment with the musical instruments at the school, teaching himself each instrument, like the keyboard, bass guitar, saxophone, and the instrument he is most known for, the trap-set drums. At The School of Agriculture, Asley Cooper attained the name “Grub”, which was the name given to all the first years at the college, but the name stuck with him as his artistic pseudonym. Grub was a band leader at the school and played the Saxophone in the band. He later joined a youth group called “Sing Out Jamaica” as their official drummer. This youth group aimed to foster good living among young people in the communities, and would be the first group to expose Grub to the life of doing road shows. 

“One night, there was the acid test.  This was before I started playing with the Sing Out Jamaica band, when the Principal of Jamaica School of Agriculture, Mr. Granville Gayle, came and said that he wanted to form a little band to play at a cocktail event he was hosting.  I think the idea was to show his guests that the school had talent.  So he had Mike Thompson playing organ, Dawkins on bass, and I was to play drums.  His special guest would be the world-famous guitarist Ernie Ranglin, and I said, “me Sir, me can’t play with Ernie Ranglin”, but he insisted, and I was excited but quite scared, as Ernie Ranglin was regarded as one of the top 5 guitarists in the world so to play with him was scary.  I wasn’t so scared even when I played on Bob Marley’s album.  

At the event, I was playing the drum set for about 40 minutes without a hi-hat, but the timing I knew was good, so after the first set was finished, I went over to Mr. Ranglin. In that first set, he would just call “we are going to play Satin Ball”, and Mike Thompson Jnr. would say ‘don’t worry about it, just keep good timing’.  So I went to Mr. Ranglin to ask how it was, and he said ‘No man, you did very well.  You must stick with it.  You have timing.  Don’t worry, man…don’t be afraid,”  and of course, that immediately made me feel that I had talent as a drummer, as Ranglin was the don.  At the second set, I was much more confident.”

Film and Media Composer

Grub, his brother Conroy Cooper, and Frankie Campbell,  who were the core group of the  Sing Out Jamaica band,  formed a trio to play the Broncos Club in Cross Roads.   This trio would evolve to become the band we now know as Fab 5. Grub’s first attempts at writing songs were instrumentals for the band, which led to his first lyrical composition “Smile Me a Rainbow”, recorded on Fab 5’s second Album F F One in 1975. Grub didn’t like to sing as he didn’t like how his voice sounded, so he worked on improving his singing by mimicking popular artists until he found and developed his own style. He would eventually sing vocals on many of Fab5’s recordings, live performances, and on his Jingles.  

In the 1970’s, Grub worked with leading jingle composers, including Pluto Shervington. Through working with Pluto, playing drums on some of his jingle recordings, Grub got exposed to the jingles industry and learned from Pluto how this element of the music industry operated. 

“Pluto would have gotten a script for a product, and he would put the music to it. In those days, most companies would send a script as they knew what they wanted to say. At times when he needed a drummer, I was on call, so I was around him a lot, watching him operate how he developed the music for the scripts.” 

Grub learned the jingle business from Pluto, and made a further step into establishing himself in the advertising industry when he approached producer Allan Rickards, asking for the opportunity to create a jingle.  Fortunately, Rickards obliged and gave Grub a script regarding Public Utilities. He composed the Jingle and recorded it with the Fab 5 Band and Gem Myers as vocalist. Grub found his first jingle gig “exciting” and “nerve-racking”, but with the skills he had acquired through working with and observing Pluto Shervington, his first jingle became his first success. 

“The words flowed very well, and I discovered that I had a thing for creating melodies, making it easy to remember.”

When Pluto migrated in 1977, Grub quickly rose to prominence as Jamaica’s leading jingle producer, arranger, singer, and composer. His voice became a defining sound on countless jingles from the late 1970s through to the early 2000s. Throughout this period, Grub frequently collaborated with other composers, including Peter Ashbourne. He would lend his vocals or perform on drums for Ashbourne’s projects, while Ashbourne would, in turn, contribute strings or keyboard to Grub’s work. Grub credits these collaborations as deeply influential, particularly recalling how he learned the craft of composing to film—synchronising music and voice precisely with visual footage.

Since those early years, Grub Cooper has composed hundreds of jingles and stingers, developing a distinctive and recognisable style. His work spans numerous advertising agencies and major clients, including corporate entities such as GraceKennedy, Air Jamaica, Red Stripe, and NCB, as well as media houses like TVJ, Irie FM, and Radio Jamaica. His portfolio also includes government agencies such as the National Housing Trust and the Jamaica Tourist Board. In recognition of his excellence, he has received the Golden Microphone Award for jingle composition.

Grub’s career has taken him into studios both locally and internationally, evolving alongside major advancements in music and sound technology, from the analog era to today’s digital landscape.

As a songwriter and composer, he has also contributed to films and documentaries. Notably, he composed the score for the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) dramatic film Fight Back, which addressed the issue of praedial larceny. For this production, he created the instrumental score, sound effects, and the theme song, which shares the film’s title.

“I had to look at the footage and follow the whole film. The music had to follow the pace and tone of the film. This film had different levels, and the music had to fit each level. Some of the songs had words in it, like the theme song Fight Back.” 

He has composed for Dr. Suds comical animation and has had songs like “Ooh! Ahh!” placed in films such as “Countryman” and “All Night Party” for the film “Every Nigger is a Star”. He is hopeful to have a major film to compose for and have more songs placed in films. Grub has received numerous awards and recognitions over the years for his masterful and long-standing works in the advertising industry.  

Theatre Music
Grub is arguably Jamaica's most prolific composer of music for the theatre. The first theatrical production for which Cooper composed music was the 1978 Louis Marriott's Musical Revue, “Pack of Jokers”. He continued to compose for Marriott’s theatrical productions, writing melodies and arrangements as they both created the lyrics. Grub composed for “More Jokers”, “New Jokers,” and many other productions for Marriott and had the opportunity to play a policeman with no lines in the musical revue “More Jokers”.  

Cooper has since provided incidental music, theme music, and songs for numerous Jamaican theatrical productions, working with luminaries (directors, writers and producers) such as Trevor Rhone “One Stop Driver”, Trevor Nairne, Basil Dawkins, Bunny Allen- Stages productions with Shebadah, Oliver Samuels- Oliver yuh Large, Aston Cooke, Ralph Holness productions “Scandal go down” and Grace Lyons “Country Wedding” just to name a few. He has received many Actor Boy Awards, including the “Lifetime Achievement Award,” and has been the musical director for the Cari-Folk Singers. 

However, Grub is best known in the theatre world for his work on the LTM pantomimes, an important part of the Jamaican cultural scene. His first involvement with pantomime was as a drummer with Fab 5 as the accompanying band for the 1973 restaging of "Queenie's Daughter". Cooper is commonly held to be the compositional king of pantomime, having composed for an amazing number of LTM productions.  Between 1979 and 2014, he worked on 29  Pantomimes, with each pantomime having an average of 14 songs,  as well as incidental music and overtures. 

Cooper's first Pantomime, as a composer,  was The Honourable All Purpus and the Dancing Princesses with a libretto by Michael Reckord. This musical also happened to be the last pantomime to have Ranny Williams, who was famously known as Mass Ran, in a leading role.  

Cooper recalls the pressures of working on theatrical productions, including having to compose an overture on the opening day of the play “Trash”.  His compositional method would often begin with him hearing an entire arrangement in his head, a rare talent, and this aided him in being able to quickly compose and arrange for the theatre, where deadlines are crucial.  

Cooper collaborated with composer Noel Dexter on pantomimes such as Schoolers (1989), Man Deh Yah (1991), Schoolers 2 (1995), and Jangah Rock (1996).  The story behind the play Jango Rock was Grub's idea, and he composed the songs with Noel Dexter and wrote most of the lyrics. This was unique in that usually the lyrics were based on the production’s scripts. 

The 29 pantomimes on which Cooper has worked are listed below:

-The Hon. All Purpus and the Dancing Princess (1979) Libretto- Michael Reckord, composer- Grub Cooper  
-Tantaloo (1982) Libretto- Gloria Lannaman, composer- Grub Cooper  
-Trash (1985) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper  
-Schoolers (1989) Libretto-Barbara Gloudon, Co-composer- Grub Cooper and Noel Dexter
-50 Fifty (1990) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper, Noel Dexter, Peter Ashbourne, Barbara Ferland, Joe Williams, Mapletoft Poulle, Marjorie Williams
-Man Deh Yah (1991) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon and Trevor Fearon, 
              Co-composer - Grub Cooper, Noel Dexter, and Pluto Shervington
-Reggae Song (1992) Libretto - Barbara Gloudon, Composer- Grub Cooper
-Anansi Come Back (1993) Libretto - Barbara Gloudon, composer-Grub Cooper
-Moonsplash (1994) Libretto - Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper 
-Schoolers 2 (1995) Libretto - Barbara Gloudon, composers- Noel Dexter and Grub Cooper
-Jangah Rock (1996) Libretto - Barbara Gloudon and Alvin Campbell, 
            Composer- Grub Cooper and Noel Dexter
-Baggaraggs (1997) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, Composer- Grub Cooper
-Anansi Web (1998) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper
-Bugsie the Millennium Bug (1999) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper
-Jack and the Macca Tree (2000) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper  
-Chicken Merry, Hawk Deh Near (2001) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper  
-Miss Annie (2002) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper 
-Combolo (2003) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, Composer- Grub Cooper
-Iffa Nuh So (2004) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, Composer- Grub Cooper
-Zu-Zu Macca (2005) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, Composer- Grub Cooper
-Howzzat (2006) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper
-Nuff An’ Plenty (2007) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper
-Runner Boy (2008) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper
-Pirate Jack (2009) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper
-Blingalinga (2010) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper
-Anansi & Goat Head Soup (2011) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer Grub Cooper
-Skoolaz (2012) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper
-The Golden Maccafat (2013) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer- Grub Cooper
-Princess Boonoonoonoos (2014) Libretto- Barbara Gloudon, composer Grub Cooper

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Media Links

Grub Cooper: Music for Commercials

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Written by Janine Coombs