Claude Hopkins

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The Claude Hopkins Orchestra 1929/30

Claude Driskett Hopkins (born August 24, 1903 in Alexandria , Virginia , † February 19, 1984 in Riverdale , Bronx , New York ) was an American stride pianist (nickname "Crazy Fingers"), arranger, composer and bandleader of swing .

Life

Hopkins learned to play the piano at the age of seven and studied at Howard University (where his parents also taught) and the Washington Conservatory in Washington, DC , where he also played in college bands. In 1924 he founded his first own band for engagements in Atlantic City and was then in the band of Wilbur Sweatman . In 1925 he toured Europe as musical director of the show "Revue Negre" by Josephine Baker - in which Sidney Bechet also played - and a year later led his own bands in Spain and Italy. In 1927 he was back in the USA, where he toured from Washington with the "Ginger Snaps Revue". In 1930 he took over the band from Charlie Skeete, with whom he played in the Savoy Ballroom (1930/31), Roseland Ballroom (1932-1934) and Cotton Club (1935/36) in Harlem . They were so popular that he also played at President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ball . They were also broadcast nationwide on radio. In April 1933, Hopkins had California, Here I Come ( Columbia ), the first of four hits in the charts.

The orchestra's soloists included Jabbo Smith , Edmond Hall , saxophonist Bobby Sands , trombonist Fernando Arbello , Vic Dickenson . The singers were Orlando Oberson and the trumpeter Ovie Olston. Recordings exist from 1932 to 1936 and from 1940 (they went on extensive tours from 1937 to 1939). Hopkins led the band from the piano and also as a conductor in the late 1930s.

In 1942 he broke up the band, arranged for radio and dance bands and CBS, such as for the short-term swing band of Tommy Tucker (1944), and during the Second World War he also worked in an aircraft factory. Then he continued to lead his own groups, e.g. B. from 1944 to 1947 a big band that made no recordings, a band in the Café Society in 1950 , played with old-time jazz musicians like Red Allen in the late 1950s , with Wild Bill Davison in the late 1960s and with Roy Eldridge in 1970 . He also recorded a few tracks with his band from the 1960s, and there are solo piano recordings of him from the 1970s.

His song compositions include Vamping a Co-Ed , Crying My Heart Out for You , Blame It on a Dream , Washington Squabble , Count Off , Low Gravy , That Particular Friend of Mine , Dancing to the Hop , Deep Dawn , Sand Fiddler , Is It so? , I Would Do Anything for You . Another hit of the band was Mush Mouth by Jimmy Mundy , who arranged for his big band in the 1930s.

In 1998 he was inducted into the "Big Band Jazz Hall of Fame".

collection

literature

Web links

Commons : Claude Hopkins  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. The date of birth is controversial. He himself stated in the entry for the US composers' association ASCAP 1906. In Bohländer Reclam's jazz guide from 1989 it reads August 24, 1903.