Chicago-style jazz comes to Payson Sunday

  Joe Hopkins Chicago-Style Jazz  

2 p.m. Sunday, September 15th

Payson Community Presbyterian Church

800 West Main Street

The door will remain open to the community.

A $5 donation includes refreshments.

For information of RSVP, contact Gerry Reynolds at

gerry-reynolds@hotmail.com, or call 602-619-3355.

Clarinetist Joe Hopkins is a jazz icon in the Phoenix area, leading three bands -- The Joe Hopkins Quartet, the 52nd Street Jazz Band and The Moldy Fig Jazz Band.  He will be bringing several of his band members with him to perform here for the first time. The group will play "Chicago Style" jazz which is often characterized by Chicago musicians Eddie Condon, Muggsy Spanier and Bud Freeman. Rhythmically the band substitutes a string bass for tuba, and a guitar for banjo. The music is moreswing-style, 4-to-the-bar manner, rather than 2-beat style of traditional dixieland bands. The band will play a wide variety of tunes, including those of more traditional jazz bands, plus many of the Great American Songbook selection's from the 1930's by Gershwin, Kern, Porter, and Berlin.

Joe led his own band while attending Reed College in Oregon. He continued to play in the off-hours with the Churchill Street Jazz Band in northern California during the the time was employed at IBM. Moving later to Arizona, he played with the Desert City Six for 13 years. He's played at numerous jazz festivals in the west as well as a guest artist with a number of other bands.

Joining him on Sunday will be Gary Church on trumpet and trombone, Cheryl Thurston on piano, Steve  Douglas on string bass, andGerry Reynolds on drums.