Chapter 7-BOHP_2007-01-26_GHopkins

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FB: Any Motown gigs or sessions that stick in your mind as being memorable?

GH: Not really. I got to play with Marvin Gaye when he was doing What's Going on? (FB:Wow.) Some of those people. I met Jean Vanderpit who was the writer some of those bands. The head honcho in Detroit was Johnny ???. who was the big trumpet player he hired all the horn players and... So I was like the third call on the sub list so I got a few things. But then in Detroit, after college, I went to Michigan State that was a real hands on school.

FB: You mentioned going to some of the Newton, uh Notre Dame festivals.

GH: Yeah for Michigan State we had a jazz band which was kind of a contra? band actually. The music department didn't allow that. You weren't allowed to practice jazz in the practice room. So they gave hte big band this old ??? hut which was an old ROTC building. We had our own little hideaway. It was great. We were rebels on campus. So we had this big band and we'd win all these awards at these jazz festivals. Two really fine players that came through Michigan State that changed my life. One was Andy Goodrich. it was an alto sax player from Nashville and Memphis area. He was a tremendous player very influenced by Charlie Parker and Cannonball Adderley. And Andy Goodrich was a master educator. In his high school band I think Nashville, was Booker Little, George Coleman, Harold Mayburn and Charles Lloyd.

FB: Damn.

GH: These are some of his students. He's a very inspired individual. Yeah, I remember him fondly. Another big influence in Michigan State was Louis Smith. Trumpet player wonderful man. He used to play with Horace Silver in the late 50s. I think he took Kenny Dorham's place maybe, somebody's place with Horace though. But he didn't want to stay on the rode. He wanted to have a family, a normal life, didn't want to do drugs, didn't want to play that scene. So he quit the road, settled down and became a junior high band director for 40 years. But he could play. Louis Smith is a master bebopper. And those two together they had a wonderful quintet when they were in college. They were getting like their master's degrees when I was...

FB: This is at...

GH: Michigan State.