Alphonso Trent, Piano/Leader, 1905, Fort Smith, AK
Trent, who was mainly self-taught, performed in numerous towns in Arkansas and Oklahoma before becoming leader of a small territory band in the mid '20s. A short time later the band began a long and successful gig at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas. The group's many performances, radio broadcasts, and local touring made it one of the most successful and popular early southwestern jazz bands. Its recordings of 1928 actually show a band as polished and advanced as those of Ellington and Fletcher Henderson at that time. Some of the star soloists with the band included; Stuff Smith, Snub Mosley and Peanuts Holland. The group made an appearance in New York around 1930 with great success, but Trent decided to return to the southwest, an area he much preferred. He made his base in the southwest, and worked on steam boat lines, a decision which greatly restricted his public exposure and opportunities to record and the popularity he might otherwise have attained. The band actually influenced Jimmy Lunceford later in the decade. Trent's group disbanded around 1934, and from then he led various lesser ensembles in the southwest. Alphonso Trent died in 1959.
Claude Hopkins, Piano/Leader, 1903, Alexandria, VA
Claude studied both, music and medicine at Howard University, where both his parents were on the faculty. He finally decided to pursue music as a career, not medecine. He led bands of his own, and even performed in New York for a short time as a sideman with Wilbur Sweatman. During the mid '20s he toured Europe as music director for the singer Josephine Baker, leading a band that included Sidney Bechet. He returned to the US in 1926 and continued leading bands of his own, and in 1930 took over the successful Charlie Skeete band at the Cocoanut Grove in Harlem. The band was very popular and played many engagements at Roseland, the Savoy, and the Cotton Club. All of this exposure led to radio broadcasts which helped to establish Hopkin's group as one of the most popular black bands of the decade. Among his famous sidemen were soloists such as Vic Dickenson, Jabo Smith, and Edmund Hall. During the mid 1930s' his band also appeared in several movie films in Hollywood. From 1940 into the mid '50s Claude had a few small combos and at one time, a big band. In 1968 Hopkins was a valued member of Wild Bill Davison's Jazz Giants. He continued to perform well into the1970s, and even appeared at several jazz festivals. Claude Hopkins died in 1984.
