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Greg Hopkins Quintet: Quintology
by Craig W. Hurst
Quintology , the newest release by the Greg Hopkins Quintet, in many respects is a quintessentially exemplary jazz recording. The CD provides an aural snapshot of a veteran group of highly skilled musicians in an environment of long-term familiarity, creating communally made music. That the New England-based Greg Hopkins Quintet has been performing together for going on twenty years is reflected in not only how even the most technically challenging levels of musical difficulty are made to sound near effortless, ...
read moreGreg Hopkins: Okavongo
by Ben Ohmart
Put together from twosessions in January 1997 and January 1998 at Berklee Studios in Boston, Greg Hopkins' more than 16 piece machinery elicits a big band movement with less swing and more contemporary jazz. The 7 minute 'Infant Eyes' is a perfect example of using a lot of people in a smooth jazz setting, occasionally rising up loud and strong, but often laying a solid sax foundation onto which everything else is built. Joe Hunt's constant clicks (and this drum ...
read moreGreg Hopkins: Okavongo
by Jack Bowers
I’m always a touch apprehensive when preparing to review a big–band album whose title is as exotic as Okavongo, but trumpeter Greg Hopkins and his New England–based Jazz Orchestra set my mind at ease immediately with a sharp and dynamic reading of pianist James Williams’ “Stretchin’” (with the author sitting in on piano) and easily held my interest throughout the remainder of a well–shaped seventy–two–minute session. Perhaps “sessions” is more appropriate, as half the album was recorded in January ’97, ...
read moreThe Greg Hopkins 16 Piece: Okavongo
by Dave Nathan
Summit Records has captured two sessions recorded in Boston by a large group of New England musicians led by trumpeter Greg Hopkins. Most of the music was composed by Hopkins and is designed to incorporate the events which have influenced him during the last 25 years, running from his work in jazz and Motown in Detroit to playing in and writing for such big bands as Buddy Rich's. The title is somewhat misleading. The music is less African than European ...
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