J.C. Hopkins is an American bandleader, writer, record producer, and Grammy-nominated producer, and songwriter.
J.C. Hopkins was born and raised in Cypress, California, United States, to a Mexican-American mother, and a father of Russian-Jewish descent. He attended school and played in various bands in his youth. He plays guitar, harmonica, and piano, eventually concentrating on the latter. Upon moving to San Francisco in the late 1980s Hopkins began performing solo as a folk singer. His first band there, Flophouse, began as a folk rock ensemble whose debut self-titled album was produced by Peter Case. The band's second album, Undaunted, garnered favorable reviews including ink in Spin magazine. [1] In 1998 he debuted his first jazz musical, Show Biz'ness, at the Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco. [2]
In 2000 Hopkins moved to Brooklyn, New York, to pursue his interest in transitioning from folk to musical theater and jazz, and created a big band by the name of JC Hopkins Biggish Band. Hopkins was introduced to a then fledgling singer Norah Jones through bassist Lee Alexander who played on Victoria Williams' album Water to Drink, which Hopkins co-produced. Jones began singing with the Biggish Band and they performed in venues throughout New York City. A 2008 interview with Judy Carmichael delves into Hopkins' creative relationship with Jones. [3]
Upon Jones signing to Blue Note Records and recording her debut album Come Away with Me on which Hopkins co-wrote "Painter Song" with Lee Alexander, singer Madeleine Peyroux took her place on the bandstand and began writing songs with Hopkins, many of which would later appear on Hopkins' album Underneath a Brooklyn Moon. Peyroux continued to perform with the band along with vocalist Queen Esther, who eventually became the band's mainstay singer.
Willie Nelson heard a demo of Norah Jones singing Hopkins' song "Dreams Come True" with the JC Hopkins Biggish Band and decided to record the tune as a duet with Jones. That song appears on Nelson's album It Always Will Be and was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Country Collaboration.
In 2005 Hopkins released the falbum Underneath a Brooklyn Moon, consisting of nine original songs co-written by Norah Jones ("One Never Knows") and Madeleine Peyroux ("Here Comes Love", "I Still Believe In Some Kind Of Love", "I've Got My Finger on a Star", "Settle Down"). The album received positive press on a national scale, including The New Yorker , as well as on National Public Radio. [4]
Actor John Lithgow, upon hearing Hopkins in his NPR interview, inquired with Michael Krumper of Razor & Tie Records who sent Lithgow a copy of Underneath a Brooklyn Moon. Shortly after, Lithgow asked Hopkins to produce his album of Tin Pan Alley children's songs, titled The Sunny Side of the Street. That album was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Children's Album.
A 2017 sophomore release, Meet Me at Minton's, serves as a display of the diligently thought-through and perfectly arranged collaborations between a wide-ranging spectrum of jazz talents, both renowned and emerging, and has been met with great applause for its innovation, composition, and generation-spanning and acclaimed featured vocalists. [5]
The album is launched by vocalist Brianna Thomas, alongside solos by Troy Roberts and Bruce Harris on Hopkins' original "Remember When". On "Suddenly (In Walked Bud)", jazz legend Jon Hendricks trades 4's with Charles Turner and Brianna Thomas, in a generational hopping scat. Andy Bey's evocative vocal on the Hendricks/Monk tune, "Looking Back (Reflections)" features revered harpist Brandee Younger. Alicia Olatuja lends her vocals to Hopkins' composition "Dreams Come True", which was previously covered by Norah Jones and Willie Nelson.
Vocalists Charles Turner and Queen Esther perform the title track "Meet Me at Minton's" and the Billie Holiday classic "Spreadin' Rhythm Around". Young guitar phenom Solomon Hicks, who was made lead guitarist for the Cotton Club Orchestra at the age of thirteen, is featured on "Alright Okay You Win". The album is then drawn to a close by Jazzmeia Horn and Jon Hendricks as they perform a duet of the Hendricks/Monk ballad "How I Wish (Ask Me Now)". The recording also features saxophonist Claire Daly, drummer Charles Goold, bassist Noah Jackson, trombonist Corey Wallace, saxophonist Christopher McBride and vibraphonist Joseph Doubleday. Concord recording artist Jazzmeia Horn, the 2016 winner of the Thelonious Monk Prize, has two features on the album, Hopkins' original "What Is Love" and the duet with Hendricks. Horn's relationship with Hendricks is evident despite a seventy-year age difference. Alicia Olatuja, who joined Gregory Porter on his recent Grammy-winning album, performs Hopkins' Grammy-nominated ballad, "Dreams Come True".
Album photography features images of the band by Grayson Dantzic, son of photographer Jerry Dantzic, whose new book Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill was released in 2017 with Thames and Hudson and features never before seen photographs of Billie Holiday. [6]
Recorded in 2004, this collection of original songs was released in July 2018. The album features an impressive lineup of musicians from both the jazz and rock world. Levon Helm and Garth Hudson in a rare appearance recording together in post The Band period and Martha Wainwright are featured on notable tracks from the record. From the jazz world Victor Lewis, Vincent Chancey, Doug Wieselman also provide accompaniment, giving the sound of the record a genre-crossing baroque-pop feel.
The third album by the J.C. Hopkins Biggish Band features all original new songs written by Hopkins and co-writes with Melody Federer and trumpeter, vocalist Nico Sarbanes plus a Charles Mingus cover. The album highlighted Joy Hanson, the aforementioned Nico Sarbanes, Vanisha Gould, Shawn Whitehorn and Alicyn Yaffee. Jazz critic Grady Harps wrote of the album, "Tough to beat, this recording is a milestone for jazz".[ citation needed ]
In addition to concerts and events throughout the country, JC Hopkins Biggish Band notably played two tribute shows honoring—and featuring—seminal jazz songwriter Mose Allison. The first, in 2001, was held at Joe's Pub in Manhattan and included Hopkins' longtime friend and collaborator, singer Martha Wainwright, Norah Jones, Madeline Peyroux and Queen Esther. One decade later, in 2011, the band held its second tribute to Allison, again featuring the jazz great, as well as his daughter Amy Allison. The performance featured Elvis Costello performing Allison's songs with the Biggish Band, as well as guest appearances by Orange Is the New Black star Lea DeLaria, folk singer Jolie Holland, Verve recording artist Lucy Woodward, and jazz singer Sasha Dobson. [7]
The Biggish Band has also been featured at Lincoln Center's "Midsummer Night's Swing" [8] and has included songwriter and performance artist Justin Vivian Bond, Joey Arias, Lea DeLaria, as well as jazz pianist and singer Champian Fulton. The band regularly collaborates with various established venues and producers including humorist and writer Kiki Valentine at The Player's Club with Justin Bond, Martha Wainwright, Jolie Holland, The Minsky Sisters, and has appeared at the Blue Note Jazz Festival [9]
In 2014, vocalist Charles Turner joined the ensemble just as JC Hopkins Biggish Band began its Wednesday night residency the Harlem jazz venue formerly known as Minton's Playhouse (now called "Minton's Harlem"). [10] [11]
The Biggish Band was also given the honor of celebrating the 100 year centennial for Frank Sinatra with the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Bandleader Hopkins created updated arrangements for classic Sinatra songs crooned by actress and singer Lea DeLaria, artist Ne-Yo, singer Alice Smith, and The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers. [12]
In addition to his residency at Minton's Harlem, in 2014 Hopkins took over as music programmer, elevating the club's reputation as the genre's birthplace of bebop and is said[ by whom? ] to be responsible in part for the resurgence of jazz vocalists returning to Harlem clubs, due to his selection of artists performing at Minton's. His latest release, Meet Me At Minton's, is a nod to this moment and features Jazzmeia Horn.
The J.C. Hopkins Biggish Band continues its residency at Minton's with new vocalists Joy Elysse, Nico Sarbanes and Vanisha-Arleen Gould. [5] [13] [14]
Hopkins wrote the screenplay for the indie film Poets Are The Destroyers, directed by Nancy Pop. He is the author of crime/coming of age novel "Man's Story" published by Thane and Prose. He has three books of poetry on Impossible Books: From Far Rockaway to Windsor Terrace, October to October and Summer of Blue Humidity. Noir Nation published his Jazz-Noir novella, The Perfect Fourth, in 2020. JC Hopkins photography appears on Martha Wainwright's Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, à Paris: Martha Wainwright's Piaf Record and inside the 2012 album Come Home to Mama .
Dinah Washington was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Norah Jones is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has won several awards for her music and, as of 2023, had sold more than 50 million records worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000's decade. She has won nine Grammy Awards and was ranked 60th on Billboard magazine's artists of the 2000s decade chart.
The 28th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 25, 1986, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year, 1985. The night's big winner was USA For Africa's "We Are The World", which won four awards, including Song of the Year which went to Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. It marked the first time in their respective careers that they received the Song of the Year Award. For Richie, it was his sixth attempt in eight years. The other three awards for the latter single were given to the song's producer, Quincy Jones.
Etta Jones was an American jazz singer. Her best-known recordings are "Don't Go to Strangers" and "Save Your Love for Me". She worked with Buddy Johnson, Oliver Nelson, Earl Hines, Barney Bigard, Gene Ammons, Kenny Burrell, Milt Jackson, Cedar Walton, and Houston Person.
Come Away with Me is the debut studio album by American recording artist Norah Jones, released on February 26, 2002, by Blue Note Records. Recording sessions took place at Sorcerer Sound Studio in New York City and Allaire Studios in Shokan, New York.
Jerome Najee Rasheed, known professionally as Najee, is an American Jazz-Smooth Jazz saxophonist and flautist.
John Carl Hendricks, known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists, such as the big-band arrangements of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. He is considered one of the best practitioners of scat singing, which involves vocal jazz soloing. Jazz critic and historian Leonard Feather called him the "Poet Laureate of Jazz", while Time dubbed him the "James Joyce of Jive". Al Jarreau called him "pound-for-pound the best jazz singer on the planet—maybe that's ever been".
Patti Austin is an American R&B, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter.
Jesse Harris is an American singer-songwriter, producer, and guitarist. He has worked with Norah Jones, Melody Gardot, Madeleine Peyroux, Nikki Yanofsky, and Lizz Wright.
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross were an American vocalese trio formed by jazz vocalists Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross. From 1962 to 1964, Ross was replaced by vocalist Yolande Bavan.
Lawrence Sam “Larry” Goldings is an American jazz keyboardist and composer. His music has explored elements of funk, blues, and fusion. Goldings has a comedic alter ego known as Hans Groiner.
"Don't Know Why" is a song written and composed by Jesse Harris that originally appeared on his 1999 album, Jesse Harris & the Ferdinandos. A cover of the song was the debut single of American singer Norah Jones from her debut studio album, Come Away with Me (2002).
Mark Howe Murphy was an American jazz singer based at various times in New York City, Los Angeles, London, and San Francisco. He recorded 51 albums under his own name during his lifetime and was principally known for his innovative vocal improvisations. He was the recipient of the 1996, 1997, 2000, and 2001 Down Beat magazine readers' jazz poll for Best Male Vocalist and was also nominated five times for the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Jazz Performance. He wrote lyrics to the jazz tunes "Stolen Moments" and "Red Clay".
Robert Andre Glasper is an American pianist, record producer, songwriter, and musical arranger. His artistry bridges several different musical and artistic genres, mostly centered on jazz. To date, Glasper has won five Grammy Awards and received eleven nominations across eight categories.
Larry Klein is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is based in Los Angeles.
Thomas Bartlett, also known as Doveman, is an American pianist, producer, and singer. He has released four solo albums as Doveman, four albums as a member of The Gloaming, duo albums with the composer Nico Muhly and the hardanger d’amore player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and "Shelter," an album of solo piano compositions.
Michael Leonhart is an American jazz trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist.
Catherine Russell is an American jazz and blues singer. She is best known for her 2016 album Harlem on My Mind.
Queen Esther is an American actor, musician, and songwriter.
Jazzmeia Horn is an American jazz singer and songwriter. She won the Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition in 2015. Horn's repertoire includes jazz standards and covers of songs from other genres, including by artists such as Stevie Wonder. She has been compared to jazz vocalists such as Betty Carter, Sarah Vaughan, and Nancy Wilson.