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Hugh Hopper

Hugh Hopper (born 29th April 1945, Canterbury, Kent, England) is a progressive rock / (fusion) jazz bass guitarist and composer. He has been a prominent member of the Canterbury scene.

Contents

  • 1 Musical career
    • 1.1 With Soft Machine (1968-1972)
    • 1.2 1973 until present
  • 2 Selected discography
  • 3 References
  • 4 External links

Musical career

Starting in 1963 as bassist with The Daevid Allen Trio, alongside drummer Robert Wyatt, he alternated between free jazz and rhythm and blues. In 1965 with his brother Brian, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and Richard Sinclair he formed The Wilde Flowers, a pop music group that never released any records during its existence, but spun off into two other influential Canterbury scene groups, Soft Machine and Caravan.

With Soft Machine (1968-1972)

Hopper's role with Soft Machine was initially as the group's road manager, but he already composed for their first album The Soft Machine and played bass on one of its tracks. In 1969 he was recruited to be the group's bassist for their second album, Volume Two and, with Mike Ratledge and Robert Wyatt, he took part in a recording session for a solo album of Syd Barrett's (formerly of Pink Floyd, with whom the early Soft Machine had gigged regularly). Hopper continued with the Softs, playing bass and contributing numerous compositions, until 1973. During his tenure the group evolved from a psychedelic pop group to an instrumental jazz-rock fusion band. In 1972, shortly before leaving Soft Machine, he recorded the first record under his own name, 1984 (named after George Orwell's novel). This was a decidedly non-commercial record featuring lengthy solo pieces using tape loops as well as shorter pieces with a group.

1973 until present

After leaving Soft Machine, through the end of the 1970s, he worked with such groups as Stomu Yamashta's East Wind, Isotope, Gilgamesh, and the Carla Bley Band. He also played in a couple of cooperative bands alongside former Soft Machine saxophonist Elton Dean: Hopper/Dean/Tippett/Gallivan (with pianist Keith Tippett and drummer Joe Gallivan) and Soft Heap (with keyboard-player Alan Gowen and drummer Pip Pyle).

In the early 1980s Hopper gave up playing music for a couple years, but by the mid-1980s he was actively working with several bands, including Pip Pyle's Equipe Out and Phil Miller's In Cahoots. He also began playing with a group of Dutch musicians in a band initially called Hopper Goes Dutch. After French guitarist Patrice Meyer joined, this group became known as the Hugh Hopper Franglo-Dutch Band.

After many years working primarily in instrumental, jazz-oriented groups including Short Wave, in the mid-1990s Hopper began occasionally working again in more rock-oriented vocal contexts, including several collaborations with the band Caveman Shoestore (using the name Hughscore) and with singer Lisa S. Klossner. He also returned to his early tape loop experiments, but now using computer technology, in recordings such as Jazzloops (2002).

In 2002, Hopper and three other former Soft Machine members (Elton Dean, drummer John Marshall, and guitarist Allan Holdsworth) toured and recorded under the name Soft Works. With another former Soft Machine member, guitarist John Etheridge, replacing Holdsworth, they have since toured and recorded as Soft Machine Legacy, playing some pieces from the original Soft Machine repertoire as well as new works. Three albums of theirs have been released until 2006: Live in Zaandam (CD, rec. 2005/05/10), New Morning - The Paris Concert (DVD, rec. 2005/12/12) and the studio album Soft Machine Legacy (CD, 2006, rec. 2005). On their tour in summer 2006, Theo Travis [1] has replaced Elton Dean who died in February 2006. Hopper also appeared on the 2004 debut solo album by No-Man singer Tim Bowness (My Hotel Year, on One Little Indian Records.

Soft Bounds
Soft Bounds

Other occasional projects are Soft Bounds (with French musicians Sophia Domancich and Simon Goubert, first with Elton Dean and then Simon Picard), also Clear Frame, an improvising group with Charles Hayward, Lol Coxhill and Orphy Robinson (augmented for a future release by Robert Wyatt on cornet).

Hugh has recently recorded two solo albums for, and established an online shop via, the highly regarded UK-based internet label, Burning Shed (www.burningshed.com).

Selected discography

References

  1. Hugh Hopper biography at Calyx, the Canterbury web site
  2. 2003 Cosmik Debris interview with Hugh Hopper

External links


 v • d • e Soft Machine
Daevid Allen | Kevin Ayers | Elton Dean | Hugh Hopper | Mike Ratledge | Robert Wyatt
Roy Babbington | John Etheridge | Karl Jenkins | John Marshall
Steve Cook | Marc Charig | Lyn Dobson | Nick Evans | Jimmy Hastings | Allan Holdsworth | Brian Hopper | Ric Sanders | Alan Skidmore | Rab Spall | Andy Summers | Alan Wakeman
Discography
Regular albums:
The Soft Machine (1968) | Volume Two (1969) | Third (1970) | Fourth (1971)
Five (1972) | Six (1973) | Seven (1973) | Bundles (1975) | Softs (1976) | Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris (1978) | Land of Cockayne (1981)
Related articles
Canterbury sound - Jazz fusion - Wilde Flowers

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