About

Duncan Hopkins

Biography

Double bassist, composer and arranger Duncan Hopkins has been working at the highest levels of jazz for almost thirty years. In that time he has worked with such luminaries as Norma Winstone, Rob McConnell, Scott Hamilton, Houston Person, Peter Appleyard, Ed Bickert, Mark Murphy, Bobo Stenson, Dianna Krall, Sheila Jordan, Kenny Wheeler, Bobby Watson, Sam Rivers, Harry Allen and Edward Simon to name but a few. Duncan was  a member of Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass and the highly distinguished Canadian Jazz Quartet for ten years before moving to Europe.

His project Elysian joins long time collaborator (and 2017 British Pianist of the Year) Nikki Iles BEM and the incredibly talented vocalist Thierry Peala from Paris. Their CD is called Voyageur and has music and lyrics by Duncan Hopkins. This band toured Europe in 2018 and 2021

Together they have a unique chemistry which simulates eventide and candlelight in one moment and sea breeze on your cheeks in the next.

All About Jazz

Elysian expresses kindness, delicacy and expressive softness. Qualities that are not so widespread today. With elegance and refinement. Elysian transports us in a flight between the notes of a dreaming heart and more capable of experiencing the aromas and colours of a kind soul.

Bruno Pollacci - Animajazz, Italy

Duncan has toured extensively throughout Canada, Great Britain, Europe, Brazil and the United States. He can be heard on over fifty albums, numerous CBC, BBC and NPR recordings. He is a long standing member of the jazz education group the Global Music Foundation and continues to be Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England. Duncan  lives in Toronto, Canada. 

The new recording Who Are You? has a few surprises. A tribute to Canadian jazz icon Ken Wheeler's compositions featuring two of Canada's great guitar talents: Ted Quinlan and Reg Schwager (C.M) . In addition, the album features an unheard arrangement of Ken's for six guitars and carefully arranged into a suite, by Duncan Hopkins,  for Ken's boyhood city of St. Catharines, Canada. Available on Three Pines Records May 26th, 2023