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.

Free Sounds: Party Pack ICE @ Douglass Street Music Collective 11.30.12

The Party Pack ICE performance last night was super fun…so much fun that I don’t think we’ll ever return to just being the trio of Party Pack. Huge thanks to Aryeh Kobrinsky for putting the night together…two awesome bands followed us, and it was a great night of music all around. PP ICE is Eric Trudel & Patrick Breiner-tenors, Dustin Carlson-guitar, AH-bass, compositions, and Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums. Here’s the full set in mp3 format…feel free to download and pass along to a friend. Enjoy!

Party Pack ICE @ Douglass Street Music Collective 11.30.12

1) Ice No. 7

2) Ice No. 4

3) Ice No. 5

4) Ice No. 1

Upcoming In September…

Hello Internet Friends!

A few shows in the NYC and Baltimore areas coming up in September. Excited to be playing creative original music written by some very talented people who are also close friends. Hope to see you out! Lots of these are conveniently located and many of them won’t cost you a dime! Here are some highlights:

Saturday 9/8–Signal Problems @ Sounds and Sounds, Launch Pad, 721 Franklin, Brooklyn NY, Danny Gouker-trumpet, compositions; Eric Trudel-sax; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 8p, brooklynlaunchpad.org–Danny has some new music for this one, and as one of the longest standing bands I play it we’ve developed some unique Baltimore-house chemistry!

Tuesday 9/11–Out of Your Head Baltimore @ The Windup Space, 12 W North Ave, Baltimore MD, Peter Formanek-sax; Mike Cerri-trumpet; AH-bass; Jim Hannah-percussion, 9:30p, no cover, outofyourhead.org–Happy to be back at the home court playing in this great music series, kept alive by Matt Frazao and Jon Birkholz. ALWAYS my favorite place to play, anywhere.

Friday 9/14–Little Brothers @ 285 Midwood, 285 Midwood, Brooklyn NY, Nathaniel Morgan-alto sax; AH-bass; Devin Gray-drums, 8p, no cover–Really excited to be performing for the first time with trio, which as the name suggests is made up of three youngest brothers. We feel that this strongly influences our approach to almost everything, music included. The few times we’ve played instead of just hang out have been great, so check it out for FREE at Midwood. Nathaniel and Devin are both also playing in a new sextet of mine that I’m hoping to debut this Winter…looking forward to this! Improvisations and potentially some loose compositions as well.

Monday 9/17–Trio @ Kif, 219 Dekalb St, Brooklyn NY, Jacob Teichroew-sax; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 8-10p, FREE–Standards, fun, free! Come have a drink and listen. I don’t get to play with Jacob often enough so this will be great.

Monday 9/24–Trio @ Kif, 219 Dekalb St, Brooklyn NY, Eric Trudel-sax; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 8-10p, FREE–More standards, more fun, more free! This one features Eric’s trio who have been a group since 2007.

Saturday 9/29–Ruckus NYC @ Cooper Union, Cooper Square, NY NY, lineup TBA, 8p, ruckusnyc.tumblr.com–Still working out the details on this one, but be sure to check out the website for this very unique day-long conference taking place at Cooper Union. The conference ends with a massive concert which will feature one of my own groups TBA.

Sunday 9/30–Signal Problems @ Freddy’s Bar, 627 5th Ave, Brooklyn NY, Danny Gouker-trumpet, compositions; Eric Trudel-sax; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums, 8p, freddysbar.com–Another Signal Problems gig, but this time we’ll be playing the old hits which we’re planning to record at the end of the year. This is an AMAZING lineup with great friends Sweet Talk and VaVatican both playing. Don’t miss!

Thanks for checking in. Coming in October will be more Signal Problems and an awesome new band called Denial and Error led by drummer and composer Kate Pittman on a couple of dates.

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!

Free Sounds: BeeP HonK @ Windup Space 3.8.12

BeeP HonK had a really fun gig last week at The Windup Space in Baltimore. Thanks to Nick Horner for arranging the whole thing, which was a really fun night of music. BeeP HonK is a success story from the Out of Your Head Collective…we were formed as a one-time-only band for the weekly series and enjoyed playing so much that we made it a regular thing. BeeP HonK is Dave Ballou-trumpet; Anthony Pirog-guitar; AH-bass; and Mike Kuhl-drums. Stay tuned for more dates with this group…it’s a fun one.  Enjoy some free mp3′s of the set:

BeeP HonK @ Windup Space 3.8.12:

1) part one

2) part two

3) part three

4) part four

Some recent things.

Here are some things that have happened recently that I like/liked:

My roommates are a band. The four of us play in a lot of bands together, but as one band we exist as Danny Gouker’s Signal Problems. That’s all four of us and no one else. Danny Gouker-trumpet, compositions; Eric Trudel-tenor; AH-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums. We recently played at the Korzo Konceptions series curated by James Carney. Here’s a video of how the set ended:

Out of Your Head Brooklyn is up-and-running and was pretty full-force right out of the gate. We’ll be at Freddy’s Bar (627 5th Ave) every 1st and 3rd Sunday at 9:30pm. There’s a ton of video from the kickoff show at http://outofyourhead.org. These two videos, shot by Daniela Mileykovsky, are some of my favorite moments of the night. And there were a lot of great moments:

Set One (Nathaniel Morgan-alto; Josh Sinton-bass clarinet; Jonathan Goldberger-guitar; Kate Pittman-drums):

Set Two (Timo Vollbrecht-tenor; Rick Parker-trombone; Dustin Carlson-guitar; Landon Knoblock-rhodes; Devin Gray-drums):

I am honored to have received a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council in the area of Music Composition for 2012. There are a number of Baltimore-based projects that this will be very helpful with, primarily updating the OOYH website and mixing the Lubbock record (which is recorded and sounds awesome).

I have a lot of performances coming up in the next few months that I’m excited about. I’m honored to be playing with so many musicians that I respect and admire. I’m especially looking forward to coming back to Baltimore on March 8 to play with Beep Honk (Dave Ballou, Anthony Pirog, Mike Kuhl, and myself) at the Windup Space. I learned a lot of really important things about music in that room. I don’t know…maybe I’m being nostalgic, but I owe that place, and the musicians that I perform with there, and Russel de O’Campo a lot.

I’m happy. Things are great and I have awesome people in my life. It’s a nice feeling to be content but still pushing forward. This is the bloggiest thing I’ve ever written.

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