Claude Hopkins


Claude Driskett Hopkins was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.

Biography

Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University; A talented stride piano player and arranger, he left home at the age of 21 to become a sideman with the Wilbur Sweatman Orchestra, but stayed less than a year. In 1925, he left for Europe as the musical director of The Revue Negre which starred Josephine Baker with Sidney Bechet in the band.
He returned to the US in 1927 where, based in Washington, D.C., he toured the Theatre Owners Booking Association circuit with The Ginger Snaps Revue, before heading once again for New York City where he took over the band of Charlie Skeets. At this time, he led a Harlem band employing jazz musicians such as Edmond Hall, Fred Norman, Jabbo Smith and Vic Dickenson. This was his most successful period, with long residencies at the Savoy and Roseland ballrooms and at the Cotton Club. In 1932, a New York music teacher and a group of white musicians tried to have Hopkins's work censored by a city court, only for the judge to note that "it is not a crime to play seductive music". In 1937, he took his band on the road with a great deal of success.
The high-pitched vocals of Orlando Roberson were a feature of the band's work. It included Ovie Alston, Fernando Arbello, Shirley Clay, Vic Dickenson, Edmond Hall, Arville Harris, Pete Jacobs, Sylvester Lewis, Ben Smith, and Jabbo Smith.
He broke up the band in 1940 and used his arranging skills while working for several non-jazz band leaders and for CBS. In 1948/9 he led a "novelty" band briefly but took a jazz band into The Cafe Society in 1950. From 1951 until his death, he remained in New York City, working mostly as a sideman with other Dixieland bands at festivals, New York clubs, and recording. He died on February 19, 1984.

Discography

As leader

With Red Allen
With Cozy Cole
With Bud Freeman
With Coleman Hawkins
  • Things Ain't What They Used to Be
  • Years Ago
  • Dear Old Southland
With Lonnie Johnson
  • Blues by Lonnie Johnson
With Ma Rainey
Category:1903 births
Category:1984 deaths
Category:American jazz bandleaders
Category:American jazz pianists
Category:American male jazz pianists
Category:American big band bandleaders
Category:Stride pianists
Category:Swing pianists
Category:Brunswick Records artists
Category:Columbia Records artists
Category:20th-century American pianists
Category:Sackville Records artists
Category:Black & Blue Records artists
Category:20th-century American male pianists