Beep Honk (Ballou/Pirog/Hopkins/Kuhl) @ Towson University Weds 2/27

Hello Friends,

I’m very excited to be playing again with Beep Honk this coming Wednesday for Dave Ballou’s faculty recital at Towson University. Beep Honk is a band that was formed for a one-time-only collaboration through the Baltimore chapter of Out of Your Head. It was good enough that we (Dave Ballou, Anthony Pirog, AH, and Mike Kuhl) decided to do it regularly (as regularly as is possible), and write some music for the band. Last year I wrote a piece specifically for this band called Airports. Since there were no Beep Honk performances on the horizon I decided to put a band together here in NY (of Kenny Warren, Mike Gamble, and Devin Gray) to have it performed. It was awesomely fun and loose, and I’m excited to do it again with the guys who it was written for. The concert is free and it starts at 8:15p in the Towson Recital Hall.

You can get a sneak-peak of Airports right HERE performed by Adam Hopkins’ Over/Under with Kenny Warren-trumpet, Mike Gamble-guitar, AH-bass, and Devin Gray-drums.

I have some other upcoming shows that I’m very excited about that I’d like to share if you are free, willing, and available on any of these nights. I think they’ll be good! More info on all of these forthcoming:

Wednesday 3/13–Double Trio Bill at The Grotto (100 Forsyth Street). I’ll be playing in two sets, one with Dustin Carlson-guitar and Kate Pittman-drums, and the second with Achilles Kallergis-guitar and Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums. These will be two different but both very fun sets. Music starts at 8:30p

Sunday 3/24–Ideal Bread @ Douglass Street Music Collective. I am very honored to have been asked to play with Ideal Bread in the absence of their bass player Richard Giddens (who very unfortunately broke his hand on New Year’s Day). We did a mini-tour of New England in January and it was an amazingly good time both on-stage and off, in the van and not in the van. Ideal Bread is dedicated to playing the music of Steve Lacy arranged awesomely by Josh Sinton. The band is Josh Sinton-bari sax, Kirk Knuffke-cornet, and subbing for the great Tomas Fujiwara will be Chad Taylor on drums for this night.

April holds three very excited things that I’ll share more about as it gets closer:

My new trio with Anna Webber and Nathan Ellman-Bell will have our sophomore performance on April 4 at the Intuit Series in Ditmas Park.

I’m very honored to have been asked by Tomas Fujiwara to play a concert with his band the Hook-Up (a band I’ve loved since hearing their first album Actionspeak when it was released in 2010). There will be a performance on April 5 at Firehouse 12 in CT, and April 6 at Cornelia Street Cafe. The band is Tomas Fujiwara-drums, compositions, Jonathan Finlayson-trumpet, Brian Settles-sax, and Mary Halvorson-guitar.

And the third event(s) I’m really looking forward to are a three-state, three-day tour with Anna Webber’s American release of her new album Percussive Mechanics. It is seriously awesome music, and I can’t wait to play it. We’ll be playing shows at Cornelia Street on April 17, Windup Space (Baltimore) on April 20, and in Philadelphia on April 21. The band is Anna Webber-reeds, compositions, Oscar Noriega-reeds, Matt Mitchell-piano, Patricia Franceschy-vibraphone, Devin Gray AND Kate Pittman-drums. Party. For real.

And here’s a great picture of me and my friend TJ Huff from the last January February Marching Band show from a few weeks back. Also a party. For real.

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December 30 Shows: Birkfest and Redroom…some good ones!

Hey Friends,

As the year comes to a close (an amazing year in so many ways…including getting engaged to an amazing person!) I have just two more concerts, both on December 30, that I am supremely excited for. Just wanted to give a heads up…much more to come in 2013! The Birkfest concert makes the first time I’ve ever performed with my mentor Michael Formanek and my very good friend John Dierker. Then later that night I’ll join John in a tradition that takes place annually at the Red Room. Details:

Dierker/Formanek/Hopkins
Sunday December 30 @ Birkfest
3030 Abell Ave, Baltimore MD
John Dierker-reeds
Michael Formanek-bass
Adam Hopkins-bass
5:00p, no cover

John Dierker Ensemble Annual Holiday Concert
Sunday December 30 @ Red Room
425 E 31st Street, Baltimore MD
John Dierker-reeds
Marc Miller-guitar
Chris Pumphrey-rhodes
Adam Hopkins-bass
Will Redman-drums
8:00p, $5

Thanks to all reading for the continued support. Lots more coming in the new year that I’m very excited and thankful for.

Party Pack ICE @ Douglass Street 11/30 LIVE STREAMING!

Hey Friends,

It’s be a little while since my last post, and a lot of exciting stuff has happened in the meantime. I had the pleasure of joining the Elina Duni Quartet (an amazing Swiss band on ECM records) for a week-long US tour which ended in a hurricane. It was a great experience to perform with such a talented group of people, and get to know them personally. I hope to have the opportunity to play music with them again in the near future.

The Lubbock record is now completely mixed by Jake Leckie, and it sounds awesome. If you need any kind of recording work done in the Baltimore area (studio or live audio) this is your guy. The recording quality is top-notch, and the mixing he was able to do with very little time is perfect for the record. We’re hoping to get it mastered and do a few blowout release shows in Spring 2013. I’m very proud of this record.

Some other great shows were mixed in over the course of the past few months, and I have some upcoming that I’m really excited about. The most immediate is the debut performance by Party Pack ICE. This is an ensemble I’ve been trying to put together for the last year and I just recently completed the arrangements and started rehearsing the band. It is the normal trio of Party Pack (Dustin Carlson-guitar, AH-bass, & Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums) but with the addition of my two favorite tenor players Eric Trudel and Patrick Breiner. We’ll be playing Friday, November 30 at Douglass Street Music Collective as part of Aryeh Kobrinsky’s Nowt Nite. This is a great series that Aryeh curates monthly. The most exciting part of the series is that he live steams it, so you can watch from anywhere in the world! It will also be available via iTunes as a podcast in the next week or so. If you’d like to check it out live just tune into the link below at 8:00p on Friday, November 30. Party Pack ICE is first, so get there early and stay late.

Nowt Nite Streaming: livlivemusic.com/nowt

Some other upcoming shows that I’m very excited about:

Friday 12/7–I’ll be premiering my new trio with Anna Webber-sax and Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums. All new compositions that I’ve written over the past couple of months just for these two musicians. We’ll be playing at iBeam on Friday 12/7 at 9:30p.

Monday 12/10 & Tuesday 12/11–I’ll be part of a 96-hour improvisation put together by the Music Factory. It is an ambitious idea and I can’t wait to contribute (and see who I’ll be performing with at noon on a Monday!) You can check out what they’re doing at newlanguages.org.

Thursday 12/13–I’ll be participating in a large ensemble experiment put together by Josh Sinton at Douglass Street Music Collective. Details forthcoming about this performance, but I am very excited about it. I respect Josh so much as a musician that I’d trust anything he puts together!

Sunday 12/16–Out of Your Head Brooklyn has been going strong for almost a year, and the last one of the year will be my first one performing! I’ve had so many people interested in the series that I just didn’t schedule myself to play. As part of Josh Sinton’s curatorial run he insisted that I perform, and I’m excited to do so with a quintet of Ed Rosenberg & Nathaniel Morgan-reeds, Dave Miller-guitar, AH-bass, and Martin Urbach-drums. Thanks Josh, that’s an awesome band! OOYH is every 1st and 3rd Sunday at Freddy’s Bar and Backroom, 627 5th Ave, South Slope.

Wednesday 12/19–Danny Gouker‘s Signal Problems take on the Branded Saloon in Prospect Heights. This will be our last performance before we go into the studio in early January to record the band’s debut record.

Thursday 1/24–This is the BIG ONE! My Baltimore-based band Quartet Offensive will be reuniting after a bit of a (unintentional) hiatus to share a bill with JERSEYBAND! Don’t need to say much else about this one. It’s at the Ottobar and if you’re in Baltimore I can’t recommend it highly enough. Those guys.

Wednesday 1/30–Denial & Error will be putting it back together as part of Oscar Noriega’s  Palimpsestic Series at Barbes in Brooklyn. I was sad to have to miss the most recent gig with this band because of the ECM tour. Excited to be doing it again! The band is Kate Pittman-drums, compositions, Josh Reed-trumpet, Landon Knoblock-rhodes, and AH-bass. Kate Pittman writes great music, and I have a great time playing it with her. This set start at 8:00p at Barbes.

Playing the Bass in Recognizable Places…

Here at adamhopkinsbass.com we’re always trying to keep it interesting for the fans of creative music and give you something to enjoy. Which leads us to the first two photos in a series: Adam Hopkins Plays Bass In Front of Famous Buildings. And it is exactly that…me playing the bass in front of buildings that you’ll recognize. And believe it, no photoshopped images here…this is the real deal!

AH in front of the Empire State Building (Photo by Maggie Hoff):

AH in front of the Capitol Building (photo by Ashton Imaging Inc):

And there you have it…two pictures of me playing the bass in places you know. New sounds, new dates, new information coming soon…stay tuned!!!

Summer happenings, and bass solos, and future happenings, too…

Oh boy it’s been since April since I updated this guy. Lots of teaching in that time, and a good amount of playing with some great people and great friends. A couple of things to watch out for in the coming months:

1) Lubbock, a 10-piece ensemble that I co-lead with Dave Ballou, is finally mixing the album we recorded back in January. It was recorded in the studio, but all in one day, and minimal takes of everything. The band was on though, so I think there is some great music to be heard on this thing, and it’s one of those live-in-the-studio sort of deals. Some previews of that coming soon. The entire band is Cam Collins, Eric Trudel, Colin Renick, and John Dierker-reeds, Dave Ballou, Brent Madsen, and Jim McFalls-brass, and Chris Pumphrey, myself, and Nathan Ellman-Bell in the rhythm section.

2) Eric Trudel Trio has been gaining some steam lately, having played a couple of gigs in the past couple weeks. Some accidentally, some intentional, but the important thing is that they happened and they were fun. Eric, Nathan and I have been playing trio together since 2007 in Baltimore, so the comfort level is high in that group and we have a good time. Good times with good dudes. I have a weekly gig at Kif in Ft. Greene every Monday night from 8-10p, and this week Eric and Nathan are both subbing, so it should be a fun time and worth checking out. Oh, and no cover! Here’s a clip of that trio playing the tune Daniella by Hurray for the Riff Raff. It features a bass solo first, and might be the only bass solo on this entire website. Enjoy!


Daniella–written by Hurray for the Riff Raff–performed by Eric Trudel-sax; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums

3) Lots of fun stuff coming up in the performances section of this page. Danny Gouker’s Signal Problems have a bunch of shows coming up in the new few months in preparation of recording their debut album. That band consists of all of my roommates, and we have fun playing music together. Lastly Out of Your Head Brooklyn has gotten off to a wildly successful start, and I’m so excited by all the support it is getting. Our next show will be Sunday, August 5 at Freddy’s Bar and Backroom, and will feature Gerald Cleaver, Oscar Noriega, Andrew Bishop, Kenny Warren, JP Schlegelmilch, Ben Syversen, Greg Chudzik, Nathan Ellman-Bell, and Kate Pittman. Wooooo…hope to see you soon!

The Rest of April…

I came to the realization today that I have a lot of performances scheduled for the next two weeks that I’m very excited about. Some old bands, some new bands, some old music series’, some new music series’…all of which I think will be good! So here are some select music performances that I think you may enjoy. Hope to see you out, and thanks for the continued support!

Saturday 4/14: Signal Problems @ 285 Midwood, 285 Midwood, Brooklyn NY, Danny Gouker-trumpet, compositions; Eric Trudel-sax; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 8:00p–Excited to be a part of the Midwood music series again! It is a great, relaxed environment to enjoy music. Pot luck at 7pm, music starts at 8pm, and never a cover charge.

Sunday 4/15: Out of Your Head Brooklyn (curating) @ Freddy’s Bar, 627 5th Ave, Brooklyn NY, 9:30p, suggested donation, outofyourhead.org, freddysbar.com–I’m really happy with how well-received the OOYH series has been in Brooklyn, and have been consistently blown away by the quality of these performances. This is the last performance of this cycle…all new schedule coming soon for May/June/July/August. Set One at 9:30p, Set Two at 11p, No Cover! Performing will be Kenny Warren, Jake Henry, Danny Gouker, Jonah Parzen-Johnson, Ryan Mackstaller, Dave Miler, Noah Garabedian. Devin Drobka, and Matt Rousseau.

Wednesday 4/18: Achilles Kallergis’ American Quintet @ The Grotto, 100 Forsyth St, NY NY, Eric Trudel-sax; Danny Gouker-trumpet; Achilles Kallergis-guitar; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 9:30p–This band is a collective effort, with each musician contributing compositions. I love these guys! No cover, one long set starting at 9:30p.

Thursday 4/19: Dustin Carlson Quintet @ The Firehouse Space, 246 Frost Street, Brooklyn NY, Dustin Carlson-banjo, composition; Nathaniel Morgan-clarinet; Shannon Barnett-trombone; Mariel Berger-accordian; AH-bass, 8p, $5, thefirehousespace.org–My good friend, and fellow Party Packer Dustin Carlson wrote a chamber piece. This group of amazing musicians will be premiering it at the Firehouse Space, which is a great new venue located in Williamsburg.

and later that night…

Turn Around Norman @ Brooklyn Speakeasy Music Series, Williamsburg Music Center, 367 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn NY, Cam Collins-sax; JJ Wright-keyboards; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 9p, weturnaround.com–It might be a little while before Turn Around Norman performs again (as JJ is starting grad school at Notre Dame in June) but I’m VERY MUCH looking forward to the two performances we have in April. We’ll be playing original compositions from our album “We Turn Around,” and to be totally honest this band is way better live! The Brooklyn Speakeasy Music series, curated by Jonathan Lindhorst promises to be one of the most exciting new music series’ in Brooklyn…we’re really happy to be a part of it.

Wednesday 4/25: Turn Around Norman @ The Grotto, 100 Forsyth St, NY NY, Cam Collins-sax; JJ Wright-keyboards; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 9:30p, weturnaround.com–And one more TAN gig at the Grotto. This will be a mix of our music and some of our favorite jazz standards. No cover!

Out of Your Head Brooklyn starts February 19 at Freddy’s Bar!

Many of you reading this are already aware of the Out of Your Head Collective and the history behind it, so I won’t go into much detail. Guitarist Matt Frazao and myself founded this collective of improvising musicians in Baltimore in 2009 and there has been a weekly performance by OOYH pretty much every week for the past three years at The Windup Space in Station North. I’ve decided to start a chapter of the collective in Brooklyn and the first performance will be Sunday, February 19 at Freddy’s Bar in South Slope. I’ve made some of my best friends through OOYH in Baltimore, and I can never ever thank Russell de Ocampo enough for supporting this vision, so I’m very excited to be expanding to the north. For now we’ll be appearing every 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month at Freddy’s Bar (627 5th Ave, BK NY). In the tradition of OOYH there will never be a cover (but we will accept donations for the musicians) and it will always start at 9:30pm, two sets of completely improvised music by a band that has never played together before. Fun! More details at outofyourhead.org.

Here’s the full schedule for OOYH BK through April 2012. For more info follow us at twitter.com/outofyourheadbk. Hope to see you out!

Sunday 2/19:

Set One (9:30p): Nathaniel Morgan-alto; Josh Sinton-reeds; Jonathan Goldberger-guitar; Kate Pittman-drums

Set Two (11pm): Timo Vollbrecht-reeds; Rick Parker-trombone; Dustin Carlson-guitar; Landon Knoblock-keyboards; Devin Gray-drums

Sunday 3/4:

Set One (9:30p): Ed Rosenberg-tenor; Patrick Breiner-tenor; Flin van Hemmen-drums; +TBA

Set Two (11pm): Adam Schatz-tenor; Kirk Knuffke-cornet; Shannon Barnett-trombone; Patricia Franceschy-vibes; Will McEvoy-bass; Tim Kuhl-drums

Sunday 3/18:

Set One (9:30p): Pablo Moser-tenor; Joe Moffett-trumpet; Mariel Berger-accordian; David Grollman-snare drum

Set Two (11pm): Yoni Kretzmer-tenor; Brad Henkel-trumpet; Sebastian Noelle-guitar; Sebastian Ammann-keyboards; Haim Peskoff-drums

Sunday 4/1:

Set One (9:30p): Ben Syversen-trumpet; Mike Gamble-guitar; Carlo Costa-drums

Set Two (11pm): Caleb Curtis-alto; Jon Lindhorst-tenor; Josh Reed-trumpet; John Blevins-trumpet; Matt Plummer-trombone; Keisuke Matsuno-guitar; Nico Soffiato-guitar; Adam Miller-drums

Sunday 4/15:

Set One (9:30p): Jonah Parzen-Johnson-reeds; Kenny Warren-trumpet; Ryan Mackstaller-guitar; Noah Garabedian-bass; Devin Drobka-drums

Set Two (11pm): Jake Henry-trumpet; Dave Miller-guitar; Xander Naylor-guitar; Matt Rosseau-drums

Out of Your Head Complete Fall Schedule

Guitarist Matt Frazao and myself have a lot of musical projects together. We play together in and both write music for Quartet Offensive which is still playing these days and recording a live album at An Die Musik on August 25. In March 2009 we created this thing called Out of Your Head.  Many of you know what it is, so I won’t go into any detail but there is a lot more information at outofyourhead.org. With the help of our great friend Russell de O’Campo (Windup Space owner) it has grown beyond out belief, involving over 50 creative musicians in Baltimore, and seeing steady crowds each week for our performances. Seeing these bands perform every Tuesday is my favorite part of the week and we couldn’t do it without the awesome musicians who are part of the collective.

We just finished the schedule for the rest of August, September, and October and it is a good one.  Lots of amazing bands in here.  The collective performs every Tuesday night at the Windup Space (12 W North Ave) in Baltimore from 9:30p to midnight.  And it is always free. Here’s the full schedule for Fall 2011 (OOYH Fall Schedule):

August 16–Ben Frock-trumpet; Susan Alcorn-pedal steel guitar; Jackie Pollauf-harp

August 23–Danny Gouker-trumpet; Janel Leppin-cello; Chris Pumphrey-rhodes; Will Redman-drums

August 30–Eric Trudel-reeds; Matt Rynes-reeds; Mike Cerri-trumpet; Savino Palumbo-piano; Patrick McAvinue-violin; Zack Branch-cello; Zach Swanson-bass

September 6–John Dierker-reeds; Matt Frazao-guitar; Jack Leckie-bass; Mike Ross-drums

September 13–Peter Formanek-sax; Anthony Pirog-guitar; Brian Brunsman-bass; Alan Munshower-drums

September 20–Colin Renick-reeds; Adam Hopkins-bass; Ethan Snyder-drums

September 27–Amanda Bloom-voice; Lauren Shusterich-voice; Erik Spangler-turntables, electronics

October 4–Dave Ballou-trumpet; Blake Cramer-vibraphone; Michael Ronstadt-cello; Mike Kuhl-drums

October 11–Anna Meadors-sax; Dan Wallace-sax; Dan Ryan-guitar; Jason Cohen-drums

October 18–Derrick Michaels-sax; Jon Lipscomb-guitar; Kevin Gift-keyboards; Mike Ross-drums

October 25–John Dierker-reeds; Andrew Delclos-bassoon; Liz Meredith-viola; Alex Weber-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums

Turn Around Norman Releases Debut Album

I’m very excited to be part of a new release from a band that I’ve been a member of for the past four years.  It’s been a long time in the making and Turn Around Norman has officially released our debut album “We Turn Around.” It features compositions by Cam Collins, JJ Wright, and myself. The band is Cam Collins-sax; JJ Wright-keyboards; AH-bass; and Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums. It is available for purchase from a number of sites digitally and hard copies are available directly from me via email. While we strongly prefer Bandcamp as the site to purchase the record digitally, we’d be excited for you to hear the music no matter where you get it! It’s also available on Amazon, Emusic, and iTunes. More info on the band is available at weturnaround.com…check back often, there are Fall tour dates in support of the album coming soon.

Welcome

Welcome to adamhopkinsbass.wordpress.com. The purpose of this site is to keep you updated of my happenings as a bassist, composer, and improviser while my permanent website (adamhopkinsbass.com) gets renovated. I’ll be updating frequently regarding upcoming performances in Baltimore and Brooklyn, as well as info relating to recordings, video, new projects, and any other information you may want to know or not know about me. Enjoy, and check back soon.

Adam.