By: Rudy Lu
Scott Hopkins is a banjo player who was originally educated as a tuba player. His bass player Lou Smaldone, the well regarded and frequently seen & heard bass player has a degree in trombone performance. How does this all relate? It probably doesn’t. Nevertheless, an evening with the Scott Hopkins trio was an afternoon of delightful and unusual combinations of music. The mixture of classic Jazz, Bluegrass, pop and even children’s music played by banjo, guitar, bass and cajon based percussion is unlikely to be heard from any other combo.
1st set
The evening opened with 2 Bluegrass numbers, Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline Rag” and “John Hartford’s “Bring Your Clothes Back Home”.
Then after a brief break and chat, the Dave Brubeck catalog was deeply explored with “Nostalgia in Mexico”.
An original followed “Burtonsville Ragg” about a small hamlet in Montgomery County.
The oxymoronic nature of depressing lyrics set bright happy melodies which is part of the blue grass tradition was discussed and then a humorous example of the genre “Baby I’m Blue”.
Scott then challenged himself and the band to a bluegrass version of the past paced Charlie Parker “Donna Lee”. This was one of many first performances for the evening. The fast paced lead and melody were performed by Scott and Luke.Communicating with each other by glancing while concentrating on their parts. Lou Smaldone and Brian Melick both setting the pace. This number is certainly part of the Jazz repetoire but certainly not banjo repetoire, fingerngs and fret board positions had to be figured out before Scott performed.
The audience learned that “Dueling Banjos” is as a rule never performed at Bluegrass festivals. This was due to the swirl of controversy regarding who wrote the piece. But since this was not a Bluegrass concert per se, why not have fun playing with it? It was reworked to “Quad Drueling Banjos” , the whole ensemble played with the premise. Making for a perfect ending to the 1st set.
2nd set
The Kenny Burrell blues “Chitlins Con Carne” followed. An ideal follow up to this classic blues, Sesame Street’s Rubber Duckie of course complete with artist singalong.
More serious music followed. Dizzy Gillespie’s tune about far away exotic Tunisia followed. With the silly frame of mind Duckie brought me, I could only think of the Beverly Hillbillies riding across the desert with Des Arnaz’s (Ricky Ricardo) Cuban orchestra playing the theme music. The even more challenging Chick Corea classic “Spain” followed. Brian Melick had a ball playing the multiple rhythms with this tune. All had room to solo.
“Blue Moon Of Kentucky” followed. This country standard was based on Elvis Presley’s interpretation, starting out slow before rocking out.
Duke Ellington’ s Caravan was also given the bluegrass treatment. This had been done originally by banjoist Bill Keith . He transcribed it into a different key than the original. It was performed in that key. Scott figured out a version in the original key, Both were performed.
The encore was a Django like tune “Boss’s Dorado”.
Lesson learned. If attending a Scott Hopkins concert, expect a eclectic musical set, a few deep lessons in musical history and theory along with a good time.
