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Visit J.D. and the Sons of Rhythm on My Space.com
www.myspace.com/jdandthesonsofrhythm

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J.D. on music, art, gratitude and myspace

First, regarding my recent show:
Thanks to Nancy Manning, Director of the Meadville Council of the Arts, for the showing and the great job she and artist George Nowack in hanging the show. George also took photos which will be posted soon.

For people doing creative, technically proficient art, outlets to show or play one's work are essential. Thankfully the internet has opened up doors that decades ago were not even imaginable. Although it is not live, the internet allows the freedom to display one's work without being at the mercy of local or corporate pressures, competing for dollars instead of presenting originality.

Mass production in industry creates a situation where music costs are "bottom-lined." Even when creative music is released in limited amounts it is packaged as a form of pop music or cultural art. At least this does gets some music to the public for appreciation.

For the most part, however, corporate profit taking and general greed seem to have overtaken the music recording and promotion business. When music becomes strictly a commodity, creativity and experimentation are lost in the material quest for high profits and low costs.

At times, people and companies have bucked the system, notably ECM and Blue Note. Often, however, most cutting-edge creative work is considered to have little or no commercial value. The value to our human collective creative identity is beyond monetary values. Thankfully there are still creative artists that manage to reach through the static, but much that could be heard and appreciated is lost.

Many creative musicians are forced to play music in idioms they don't want to be in, but to live another day is to play another day. Pandering to simplistic tastes and in some cases racial and ethnic bias plays a part in what gets recorded and promoted. This is framed by Abby Lincoln in Ken Burns' Jazz Series, in which she elaborates on racial injustices in the recording industry. This is a highly recommended video series if you have not seen it yet.

Some resist the norm, and for those beautifully creative humans, one knows that creativity must be done, or one begins to shut down physically, spiritually, psychologically or emotionally.

I am grateful and truly proud to know and be associated with so many gifted people. I find myself surrounded by a community free of hype, fluff or mindless social hipness games.

I would like to invite creative people reading this to contact me through MySpace.com at www.myspace.com/jdandthesonsofrhythm. We have been hooking up with people worldwide, including radio stations and websites. Of particular note is the site of Rick Calic, of www.jazzrockworld.com, who has been a long-time friend and supporter of us and of Jazz Fusion.

The musicians and artists associated with the Sons of Rhythm are doing our part in making creative art. The internet allows us to interact directly, helping us to know each other's work without the aid of record corporations, large art galleries and national magazines. I believe this is opening doors that we should take advantage of, establishing our presence before greed and self-interest have a chance to overcrowd the internet information highway.

My son Jordan takes care of the MySpace.com website for me, as I claim computer illiteracy. My partner Frank Singer takes care of the J.D. Hopkins.com website. J.D. and the Sons of Rhythm will continue in the hands of Frank and my son Rickie long after my currently uncertain health prevents my direct involvement. Right now we have over 50 musicians and artists involved directly and another 30 or so indirectly with this project. We hope to keep this going for years to come, and join with other creative people all over the world to collaborate on our collective success.

We would like to thank Dr. Rock, aka Dave Richards of Erie, PA's Showcase. Dave has been very good to us through this excellent entertainment magazine, helping to provide coverage of the creative arts and pop scene in this area. John Vanco, Director of the Erie Art Museum deserves thanks also for including us in the Blues and Jazz Festival and for his assistance with the combined music and art shows at the Art Museum Annex performance space.

I would like to close with thanks to the people playing and recording the music. There are an amazing group of musicians, creative as hell, and a whole lot of fun. Thanks especially to Frank for not only being the most amazing musician, but also traffic director for the melodic and harmonic instruments. He runs the web site and is my partner and friend.

Frank, along with the Sons Rickie, Jayson and Jordan will continue to move the music and art forward. We hope to have films by artist/film maker Sue Buck with J.D. and Sons music on YouTube and MySpace soon. Rickie, Frank, Kenny, Preach, Steve Snippert, Kristen Lee and others continue to work together on various projects, so stay tuned.

J.D.

>>article from December 2006

J.D. Art Featured

PSYCHOCO EXPLAINED
by J.D. HOPKINS

	My art work is a visual extension of our music. I guess a good term would be Psychoco. Rococo art was strictly decorative, as is mine, and with the Psychic Drift Factor while looking at my art, as well as with our music, I think the term fits well. It's sort of like beautifying a trip through the universe to hang on the wall. I have a show on Friday, January 12 at Meadville Center for the Arts (MCA) from 7:30 - 9m. Rickie and Darrin will play music. See you there. All proceeds will be used in the continued development of jdhopkins.com.

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>>article from December 2006

News From The Crew

WHAT OUR FRIENDS ARE UP TO NOW
- J.D. HOPKINS

Kirk Nesset, professor of creative writing at Allegheny College, and disc jockey, whose comments on our music were quoted in our Downbeat and Modern Drummer ads, recently won the prestigious Dave Heinz Literature Prize for his collection of short stories called Paradise Road. That's cool, Captain Kirk, we offer our congratulations. Kirk also plays guitar, composes, and sings in local bands.

Scott and Kim McCleland of the Roadhouse Theater for Contemporary Art have opened Toulouse Gallery on Peach Street in Erie. The Sons of Rhythm and I have had a great working relationship with them for years. Recently they hosted the Great Lakes Film Festival, in which artist and teacher Sue Buck had several films accepted for the festival. (More below.) Thanks to Scott and Kim for all they've done for the creative arts in the area, in which they have been a major factor.

Sue Buck, whose drawing of a gorilla was used for the cover of our CD entitled Primate Gestures, has created drawings for the National Zoo Think Tank and her works have been purchased at art auctions staged to raise money for the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Norfolk Zoo in Virginia. In 2001, she was commissioned to create portraits of five individual chimpanzees housed at The Chimp Center which was until recently associated with Ohio State University and the work of Dr. Sally Boysen. The Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa has commissioned seven drawings of bonobos and orangutans who live at that new facility and sanctuary. Four of those drawings have been editioned into prints and her images will also be reproduced on t-shirts and mugs; all of these will be sold to raise money for the organization. Future projects include the possibility of creating a mural of one of the orangutans for the city of Des Moines.

Panbanisha, who is a female bonobo living at the Great Ape Trust and whose portrait was drawn by Buck, was the inspiration for a song on a newly released Tony Levin CD. Levin, who plays bass for Peter Gabriel, met Panbanisha and it was through this experience that she became the subject of one of tracks. Check out www.greatapetrust.com to see and hear an interview with Buck and to meet Panbanisha and other apes.

Buck has been using music by JD and the Sons of Rhythm for her films, four of which were previewed at the Great Lakes Film Festival and also shown at the Allegheny College Art Gallery. The artist has also been creating her films to music mixed and created Rickie Hopkins and his friend Steve Snippert.

Rickie Hopkins and Steve Snippert are developing new hip hop tracks for an upcoming CD project, and are sharing some of this music with Sue Buck. In addition to this venture, Rickie will be joined on Friday, January 12 by Darrin Foltz, where they will be playing for my [J.D.'s] art show opening at the M.C.A. in Meadville, PA, above the Market House in Market Square, from 7:30pm - 9pm.

Editor's Note:
J.D. and the Sons of Rhythm would like to thank all of our crew, which includes performers, technical assistants and engineers, artists, writers, radio and internet radio personalities, webmasters and web site owners, and especially fans and listeners who give us someone to share our music with. In the words of my friend DJ Chilly J, Peace and Blessings.

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>>article from September 2006

Near Journey's End Marks Milestones

DISC 12 - NEAR JOURNEY'S END

Dedicated to my friends Jim Hall and Mike Smith. Both died within 2 months of each other. Jim did the cover art plus T-shirt designs on our web site. Mike was responsible for me playing the drums. He was one of the great drummers in jazz. We all went to school together and were part of a tremendously creative group of people that survived and grew up in a small town in the 60's. Paul McCandlass of Oregon and Paul Winter Consort and Will Rounds who's sculptures can be seen at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and Disneyland in California are two others of significant creative output.

J.D.

Near Journey's End brings together nineteen more tracks on two discs of J.D. and the Sons of Rhythm. This jamming collective improvisation ensemble once again creates music without a net, relying solely on listening, experience, sensitivity, and a desire to communicate ideas between fellow creators.

J.D. Hopkins, executive producer and mastermind of this project, once again assembles the crew from the rhythm up, with sons Rickie and Jayson joined by Joel Polacci, Preach Freedom and new member of the extended group, Baba Raymond Sylla, Senegalese master drummer.

The bass work is divided between Ralph Reitinger, Tony Stefanelli and David Blaetz, with Ralph handling the bulk of the cuts, and David's two on Acoustic. Guitarists Mike Ohm and Sheldon Peterson make frequent appearances, Phil Papotnik adds sax, flute and clarinet, and Chris Sedelmeyer mixes in violin, adding some cool effects. Pianist Mark Dewalt plays the first song with Phil and Sheldon, and Frank Singer adds the rest of the keyboard tracks, as well as guitar-synth and guitar, including the acoustic guitar solos.

From the opening ballad feel, diverse styles are covered, with Ornette Coleman-style Free Jazz textures, Herbie Hancock-style Funk grooves, Miles-like explorations, World Music jams, and even some Swing. Like so many contemporary musicians, these players have enormously eclectic backgrounds and experiences. Players often find a common thread of style in unexpected places, and just as often end up playing poly-stylistic mixes that somehow gel and lock to create a new harmony. Creativity rises from below to add to the conversation above, and one influences the other. It is organic music of the first order.

Dedicated to Graphic Artist and Designer James Hall and Jazz Drummer Mike Smith, this CD gives honor and commemoration to two fellow artists who died in 2006, a few months prior to the release of Near Journey's End. Originally titled to mark the conclusion of recording sessions and the process of completing the release of the already-recorded material, it became obviously appropriate to dedicate the music to James and Mike as these sad events transpired.

Near Journey's End is disc set number twelve. This string of releases represents a notable body of work, showing the evolution of ideas and musical thought, and familiarity with fellow musicians and with the preceding works. Jim Hall's beautiful art encapsulates the mood and character of this current project, both modern and classic, abstract and clearly recognizable, and to the journey's end, creative.

>> buy this cd: $15.00      stream all cuts

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