Mission statement
'Dr Hoppo's Urban Rooftops' is my latest musical project: a seed intended to grow into a
successful big band playing jazz, latin, soul,
funk, rock, dance music, deliberately mixing up genres to keep audiences
engaged.
Since our first gigs in 2019, we have
performed shows varying from a
ten-piece outfit, with drums, percussion and horn section, to an intimate quartet based round congas. Whichever way, expect an
uplifting mixture of jazz and other
cool songs for listening,
along with latin- and soul-tinged
sunny music for dancing.
The Urban Rooftops 'core four' are: prima chanteuse Lauren Mullarkey, with Dave Howells on lead vocals and guitar, Rob Murray on bass, and myself Steve (Dr Hoppo) Hopkins on the pianoforte.
The ten-piece band has included Myke Wilson or Paul Burgess on drums,
with Mick Gilbourne or Chris Cruiks on congas, and a horn section
led by Steve Arrand on trumpet.
Plus an Urban Rooftops night will often
feature exciting surprise guests.
Come early to a gig and we'll try and find you seats at a table, maybe find you some new friends and there'll be space to dance if you want.
My priorities in autumn 2023 are to finish the recording of a forthcoming album of original songs, to film some promo video for YouTube and to play a few quintet gigs before getting the bigger band back on the road. Meanwhile, here's a clip from one of last year's gigs!
