Underappreci

Living it up in Yuma sometimes means getting down on your harmonica.

That may sound a bit like a bad country song, but to Dennis Cooper it amounts to a life that's sweet music to his ears - and everybody else's.

Cooper recently landed in these parts for his second winter as a jack of all trades, professional tie-dye maker and self-described "itinerant harmonica player." It's a colorful life for sure and very much so on purpose. That's because after a long life of serving in corporate America for years, Cooper's now working for himself, making music and having the time of his life.

"I'm just exploring," the musician said, smiling. "I figured I had to do it while I was still young enough to try."

But he's not doing all of this alone. Cooper may perform as a one-man harmonica band, but he's living life as a duet act - with his wife and partner, Sandra.

The couple, whose home base is in Idaho, decided to start wintering in Yuma because they figure it's a pretty rich market for harmonica gigs.

Cooper's been playing gigs all over town and plans to strike it big this winter with all the RV parks. Arizona Marketplace has also talked him into performing from time to this season, too.

"We're having a great time so far, too," Cooper said, adding a bit of lament. "But it's hard to get into the established. There are musicians who have been coming down, doing this circuit for 30 years and they don't want to share the sandbox. There's really good potential here, though."

So it's a good thing that he brought an impressive resume with him to town. He's performed all over the county, he's recorded three CDs and he's slow to admit that he considers himself among the top 50 best harmonica players in the world.

"Being honest, I've had people tell me I was in the top 10, but I don't know what they based that on," Cooper said, chuckling with good self-effacing humor. "I've been around whom I consider to be the best player in the world and he's in hands down. I hate to be pigeon-holed as the whatever-ranked harmonica player in the world, but people in the industry love doing that."

Cooper's CDs are sold on Walmart.com and earned raved reviews, for example, on the former Web site MP3.com.

"In first days of that Web site one of my CDs was the number-one jazz CD on six different occasions," he said. "That was pretty inspiring."

He also won the Yellow Pine Harmonica Contest, which is considered that instrument's biggest competition in the world.

Right now Cooper's music is also kicking butt on a contest hosted by the Web site Ultimate Band List, which began with thousands of contestants and has narrowed them all down to 120 hopefuls.

"Right now I'm only 700 votes away from first place," Cooper said with pride. "That tells me that there may be some interest there."

Maybe that's because Cooper's music evolves so much further than any stereotypical juke joint playing. A harmonica in this man's mouth turns from a single instrument into its own full orchestra.

"I just realized that I could play a complete melody on the harmonica. It's not just an accessory instrument. I can be the lead instrument."

Cooper prides himself on playing music people would never expect from the seemingly simple mouth organ.

I have my own distinct style, says Cooper. I play a very melodic style and it thrills me when someone in the audience leaves a performance humming or whistling part of something I played.

"People expect to hear something akin to Bob Dylan, kind of wheezing and whining harmonica playing," he said. "I love to play the blues and I love jazz, but primarily I do a lot of standards. That's what the audiences want to hear."

Instead Cooper's audiences get anything from Count Basie tunes from the 1930s to the theme song "An American in Paris."

Cooper discovered the harmonica at the sweet age of 9. His uncle had given him one and by high school he was hooked.

"After all the music training I've had this was an instrument where the music flowed instantly and naturally for me. It wasn't something where I sat down and worked it out."

Cooper, venturing into metaphysical waters here, admitted that he doesn't know where those sounds come from, either.

"It probably could be classified as mental illness, but there's music going through my head all the time. I seldom, if ever, listen to the radio because the music's already there."

But for many years that music was only allowed out on a part-time basis. That's because Cooper worked for years in the newspaper industry, then for a major condiment company, which he credits for finally convincing him to quit working for the man and hit the road.

"In one year's period of time, out of 70 salaried employees, I watched 10 percent of them drop dead from stress-related heart attacks."

So for the last two years now Cooper and his wife have spent about half the year on the road, hopscotching the nation in search of music festivals. In addition to the tie dye they also keep busy selling harmonicas and a book Sandra wrote on learning the instrument.

Cooper admits that whether all of this works out to be a financial success remains to be seen. But one thing's for sure. The Coopers are having fun gettin' down in Yuma.

"I can't imagine life without the harmonica in some form," he said. "Without it I'd probably have been institutionalized or jailed by now!"