Hopper Tunity Box is a 1977 album by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

/ rock musician

Hugh Hopper Hugh Colin Hopper (29 April 1945 – 7 June 2009) was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands. Biography Early career Starting ...

. Ex-

Soft Machine Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge (keyboards, 1966–1976), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals, 1966–1971), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals, 1966–1968) and Daevid Allen (guitar, 1966– ...

bassist augments his rather infamous fuzz-bass attack by performing on guitar, recorders, soprano sax, and percussion. The album recorded in 1976 and re-released on CD by

Culture Press Culture Press is an independent record label from UK specialized in Jamaican music. LP Discography *VSLP5000 - Bob Marley - Interviews *VSLP5001 - Clint Eastwood - The Best Of Clint Eastwood - 1984 *VSLP5002 - Dillinger - Blackboard Jungle ...

in 1996 and

Cuneiform Records Cuneiform Records is a record label in Silver Spring, Maryland. Founded in 1984, the label releases an mixture of musical styles, all with a Rock in Opposition aesthetic, including progressive jazz, jazz fusion, the Canterbury scene, and electr ...

Hopper Tunity Box , Cuneiform Records
/ref> in 2007, this outing features the bassist's fellow Soft Machine bandmate, saxophonist

Elton Dean Elton Dean (28 October 1945 – 8 February 2006) was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello (a variant of the soprano saxophone) and occasionally keyboards. Part of the Canterbury scene, he featured in, among oth ...

, along with others of note.

History

Around 1975 Hugh Hopper begun to gather together musical ideas that he had been working on since leaving

in 1973 - snatches of tunes that for the most part had not previously seen the light of day. A friend of him was recording engineer

Mike Dunne Michael or Mike Dunne may refer to: * Mike Dunne (journalist) (1949–2007), American writer * Mick Dunne (1929–2002), Irish sports journalist * Mike Dunne (baseball) (born 1962), American baseball player * Michael Dunne (MP), Member of the UK ...

, who had been assistant engineer on his first solo record, ''1984'' ( CBS, 1973), and who was now in charge of the mobile studio of

Jon Anderson John Roy Anderson (born 25 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire. He was a member of the band across thre ...

of Yes. Mike suggested him to co-produce a record together; he would provide the studio and Hopper would provide the music and musicians. By the time Hugh Hopper had arranged the music into some sort of coherent order and invited along the various guest musicians, Mike's studio was set up in one of London's big film sound studios, where Yes rehearsed for tours. Jon Anderson occasionally popped his head around the door when they were beavering away at some tricky tape-looping or double-speeded bass, and

Steve Howe Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist in the progressive rock band Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, North London, Howe developed an interest in the guitar and began to l ...

looked in once, Hopper seem to remember. He knew them slightly, anyway, from Soft Machine tours when the two bands came together at festivals. Hugh Hopper think they took about two weeks to get most of the music down. For all but one of the tracks, he started by laying down bass with an old-fashioned, wind-up metronome click-track. Then Mike Travis came in and added drums for all of the tracks except ''"Mobile Mobile"'', which featured Nigel Morris, Hopper's old bandmate from

Isotope Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers ( mass number ...

. (After the record came out, both drummers said they preferred the sound that the other drummer got down on tape). The only time Hopper actually played alongside any of the other musicians was on ''"Crumble"'', when Mike Travis and him laid down the rhythm track together. Then Dave Stewart did his work on the Hammond and oscillator sounds. Next

Gary Windo Gary Windo (7 November 1941, in Brighton, England – 25 July 1992, in New York City) was an English jazz tenor saxophonist. Career Windo came from a musical family in England. By age six he took up drums and accordion, then guitar at twelve an ...

with his honking sax and blowing foghorns on ''"Miniluv"''. Hugh traded him sessions for the bass he had recently played on his "Steam Radio" project, which finally came out many years later as ''His Masters Bones'' (

, 1996). Frank Roberts added some

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

piano and, lastly, in came

and

Marc Charig Mark Charig (born 22 February 1944 in London) is a British trumpeter and cornetist. He was particularly active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he played in settings as diverse as Long John Baldry's group, Bluesology, Soft Machine, and K ...

to play on ''"The Lonely Sea and the Sky"''.

Critical reception

After the record came out on the Norwegian Compendium Records label, it had mostly good reviews... except one in an ultraconservative British jazz magazine, where the reviewer said: ''"it had all the subtlety of a stone (14 pounds) of King Edwards (potatoes) tumbling downstairs and all the melodic and harmonic interest of a trapped wasp... not a jazz record..."''

Track listing

All pieces were written by

, except where noted.

Hopper Tunity Box (1974)

The theme is played by multitracked descant and tenor recorders (about 12 descant and two tenor tracks) over a riff of electric organ, electric piano and double-tracked bass. Double-speed fuzz bass then plays Hopper Tunes and quotes until an alien tune brings in Dave Stewart's weird tone-generators.

Personnel

- bass, guitar, recorders, soprano sax, percussion * Richard Brunton - guitar (A2, B1) *

- cornet, tenor horn (A4, B2, B4) *

- alto sax, saxello (A4, B2, B4) * Nigel Morris - drums (B3) * Frank Roberts - electric piano (A4, B1, B4) * Dave Stewart - organ, pianet, oscillators (A1, B3) * Mike Travis - drums (A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B4) *

- bass clarinet, saxes (A1, A2, B1, B2)

References

{{Authority control Hugh Hopper albums 1977 albums