Hopkins, Adam - Crickets
SKU
OOYH 001
Adam Hopkins - bass, compositions
Anna Webber - tenor saxophone
Ed Rosenberg - tenor saxophone, bass saxophone (track 6)
Josh Sinton - baritone saxophone, bass clarinet
Jonathan Goldberger - guitar
Devin Gray - drums
“...But what is uncommon about this release is Hopkins’ blend of free jazz, fusion, and rock stylings.”-Avant Music News
“Adam Hopkins has been an active figure on the New York City scene since settling in Brooklyn in 2011, and has toured across Europe and North America with John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet, Ideal Bread, and recent NYC performances with the Pulitzer Prize winning Henry Threadgill.
As a summer evening turns to night the air is filled with the chaotic clamor of crickets struggling to be heard, and Adam Hopkins’ debut, Crickets personifies that sound perfectly. The album features dynamic multi-layered melodies and energized counterpoint that serve to electrify his band and act as a springboard for collective exploration. Unison bass and guitar lines set the stage for rampant saxophone improvisations, often in the form of a soloist but occasionally in a full group free-for-all, reminiscent of a swarm of insects.
While the sound and vigor of this raging saxophone front-line may be the obvious inspiration for the album title and band name Crickets, Hopkins says the reality is a bit more abstract. "I drew on a lot of my earliest musical influences when I wrote the compositions for this band, which has been active since 2014. The foundation for what is on the record comes from long before I had any interest in playing jazz--it is heavily rooted in the grunge, indie, and punk rock that I was listening to in high school. We'd write music, rehearse bands, and play shows all summer long in Baltimore clubs like the Small Intestine, Talking Head, and the old Ottobar. Crickets is just the sound of those summers as a teenager, but with a decade or two of musical development mixed in.”
On Crickets Hopkins takes the guitar-driven bands he loved as a teenager in the 90’s (Nirvana, Pavement, and The Dismemberment Plan), and expertly melds them with his modern influences as a composer and improviser (Tim Berne, Henry Threadgill, and Igor Stravinsky). The forthcoming album may be at home in a record collection somewhere between the Nels Cline Singers and John Zorn's Naked City, but the result is something uniquely Hopkins' own.”
Steve here – this is a great one! Listen to this!!
- LabelOut Of Your Head
- UPC192914584353