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Claude Driskett Hopkins (1903–1984) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 stride
Stride piano

Stride, also known as New York ragtime, is a jazz piano style wherethe pianist's left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a bass note or tenth interval on the first and third beats, and a Chord on the second and fourth beats, or an interrupted bass with three single notes and then a chord while the right hand plays melodies, riffs an...
 pianist
Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an musical ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
 and bandleader
Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
.

de Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the United States Census 2000, the city had a total population of 128,283....
 in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University
Howard University

Howard University is a private university, coeducational, nonsectarian, Historically black colleges and universities university located in Washington, D.C., United States....
. A highly talented stride piano player and arranger, he left home at the age of only 21 as a sideman with the Wilbur Sweatman
Wilbur Sweatman

Wilbur C. Sweatman was an African-American ragtime and dixieland jazz composer, bandleader, and clarinetist.Sweatman started out playing violin, then took up clarinet instead....
 Orchestra but stayed less than a year.






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Claude Driskett Hopkins (1903–1984) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 stride
Stride piano

Stride, also known as New York ragtime, is a jazz piano style wherethe pianist's left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a bass note or tenth interval on the first and third beats, and a Chord on the second and fourth beats, or an interrupted bass with three single notes and then a chord while the right hand plays melodies, riffs an...
 pianist
Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an musical ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
 and bandleader
Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
.

Biography

Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the United States Census 2000, the city had a total population of 128,283....
 in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University
Howard University

Howard University is a private university, coeducational, nonsectarian, Historically black colleges and universities university located in Washington, D.C., United States....
. A highly talented stride piano player and arranger, he left home at the age of only 21 as a sideman with the Wilbur Sweatman
Wilbur Sweatman

Wilbur C. Sweatman was an African-American ragtime and dixieland jazz composer, bandleader, and clarinetist.Sweatman started out playing violin, then took up clarinet instead....
 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
Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker was an American expatriate entertainer and actress. She became a French citizen in 1937. Most noted as a singer, Baker also was a celebrated dancer in her early career....
 with Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet

Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophone, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist of any sort....
 in the band.

He returned to the USA in 1927 where, based in Washington, he toured the TOBA circuit with The Ginger Snaps Revue before heading once again for NYC where he took over the band of Charlie Skeets. At this time (1932-36), he led a fairly successful Harlem band employing many jazz musicians who were later to become famous in their own right such as Edmond Hall
Edmond Hall

Edmond Hall was an American Jazz clarinetist and bandleader. His father Edward Blainey Hall and his mother Caroline Duhe had 8 children, Priscilla , Moretta , Viola , Robert , Edmond , Clarence , Edward and Herbert ....
, Jabbo Smith
Jabbo Smith

Jabbo Smith, born as Cladys Smith was a United States jazz musician, known for his hot virtuoso playing on the trumpet.Smith was born in Pembroke, Georgia....
 and Vic Dickenson
Vic Dickenson

Vic Dickenson was an African-American jazz trombonist. Dickenson's career started out in the 1920s and led him through musical partnerships with such legends as Count Basie , Sidney Bechet and Earl Hines ....
 (although it's worth noting that his records were arranged to feature his piano more than his band). This was his most successful period with long residencies at the Savoy
Savoy Ballroom

The Savoy Ballroom located in Harlem, New York City, was a medium sized ballroom for music and public dancing that was in operation from 1926 to 1958....
 and Roseland ballrooms and at the Cotton Club
Cotton Club

The Cotton Club was a famous night club in New York City that operated during Prohibition. While the club featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era, such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway, The Nicholas Brothers, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, and Ethel Wat...
. In 1937 he took his band on the road with a great deal of success.

He broke up the band in 1940 and used his arranging talents 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 up until his death, he remained in NYC working mostly as a sideman with other Dixieland
Dixieland

Dixieland music or sometimes referred to as Hot jazz or New Orleans jazz is a style of jazz which developed in New Orleans, Louisiana at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s....
 bands playing at festivals and various New York clubs and recording. Often under-rated in later years, he was one of jazz's most important band leaders and has yet to be given full recognition for his achievements. He died on 19 February 1984, a disillusioned and dispirited man.

As popular as Hopkins' band was, it never achieved the high level of musical brilliance that Ellington, Henderson, Hines, Basie, Webb or Lunceford achieved.

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