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Eric Hochberg

A mainstay of the Chicago music scene for more than forty years, Eric Hochberg has lent his bass work, both upright and electric, and an occasional trumpet, keyboard and vocal lick to a variety of projects across the realms of jazz, folk, rock and blues. He has performed and/or recorded with the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Bobby McFerrin, Pat Metheny, Barbra Streisand, Cassandra Wilson, Von Freeman, Chico Freeman, Steve Kuhn, Ken Nordine, David Baker, Cannonball Adderly, Charles McPherson, Jon Faddis, Joshua Redman, David Bromberg, Johnny Frigo, Joe Daley, Howard Levy, Tim Ries, Kurt Elling, Trio New, Eric Alexander, Tierny Sutton, Patricia Barber, Jackie Allen, Janice Siegal, Peter Erskine, Joey Baron, Paul McCandless, Claudio Roditi, Bob Mintzer, Dave Liebman, Sam Rivers, Jack DeJohnette, Bobby Broom, Eric Marienthal, Bobby Shew, Tom Harrel, Larry Novak, Gary Novak, Rick Margitza, Sheila Jordan, Diane Reeves, Alan Pasqua, Bob Sheppard, Mark Murphy, Bob Dorough, Randy Brecker, Terry Callier, Don Ellis, Larry Coryell, Rebecca Paris, Leni Andrade, Sonny Fortune, Willie Pickens, Bobby Lewis, Erma Thompson, Lew Tabackin, Brian Lynch, Lester Bowie, Don Moye, Earnest Dawkins, Henry Butler, Emily Remler, Herb Geller, Chevere de Chicago, Sonia Dada, Mark Colby, Orbert Davis, Ed Thigpen, Anthony Molinaro, Bonnie Koloc, Michal Urbaniak Quartet, Bill Holman, The Boston Brass, Bill Russo’s Chicago Jazz Ensemble, The Chicago Jazz Orchestra, JazzTech Big Band, The Miami Saxophone Quartet, Jim Walker & Free Flight, The Grant Park Symphony with Luciana Souza and Patti Austin, The Joffrey Ballet, Luna Negra Dance Company, The Chicago Human Rhythm Project, and Chicago Tap Theater. Eric has the distinction of having performed in the bands of three of the four members of the Pat Metheny Group - a tour in 1977 with Pat, a long association with drummer Paul Wertico and a Latin American tour with Lyle Mays in 1992. He has toured nationally/internationally with the Lyle Mays Quartet, the Terry Callier Group, the Paul Wertico Trio, the Kurt Elling Quartet, Ken Nordine’s Word Jazz, the Howard Levy Quartet and the Grazyna Auguscik Quintet. He has performed at the Jazz Festivals of Montreal, San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago (18 times), Montreux, UK/London, Free Jazz/Brazil, Leverkeusen/Germany, World Music Festival/Barcelona, Rome Jazz, Rotterdam Jazz, Karlsruhe Festival/GR, Frappe Festival/FR, Nice Jazz/FR, Gigon Festival/Sp., Cully Jazz/Swiss, Blues and Roots Fest/Australia, The International Society of Jazz Educators/Atlanta, The Chicago Flute Club, The Percussive Arts Society/Columbus OH, Rockford Jazz, IL, Hyde Park Jazz Festival/Chicago, South Shore Jazz/Chicago, Elkhart Jazz/IN, Columbus Jazz Festival/OH, Milwaukee Summerfest, Louisville Festival of the Arts, Blue Note Tokyo, Yokohama and Milan, and concerts and clubs worldwide.

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25
Album Review

Roberto Magris: Shuffling Ivories

Read "Shuffling Ivories" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Pianist Roberto Magris follows up his critically-acclaimed album Suite! (JMood Records, 2018) with a duet recording with Chicago-based bassist Eric Hochberg, whom he met while recoding Suite! . Returning to the windy city in November 2019 to promote the release of Suite! , Magris and Hochberg decided to make an album of their own while enduring one of the heaviest winter storms in the history of the city. Over his thirty-plus albums, Magris has often drawn inspiration from ...

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Album Review

Roberto Magris: Shuffling Ivories

Read "Shuffling Ivories" reviewed by Jack Bowers


In 2018, while he was in Chicago to record his ninth album, Suite!, for JMood Records, pianist Roberto Magris was introduced by tenor saxophonist Mark Colby to bassist Eric Hochberg, an artist with whom Magris formed an almost immediate bond. After performing together at Chicago's Jazz Showcase, Magris and Hochberg decided they should record together, and so they did, setting down Shuffling Ivories, wherein Magris pays tribute to a number of his pianistic heroes, from Eubie Blake to Oscar Peterson, ...

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Album Review

Roberto Magris & Eric Hochberg: Shuffling Ivories

Read "Shuffling Ivories" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


You cannot get a sound that is more dead-center-of-the-U.S.A than pianist Roberto Magris and Eric Hochberg's Shuffling Ivories. This makes sense geographically as the disc comes from Kansas City's JMood Records, the label that seems intent on recording everything that Magris has to offer, including the pianist's 2020 magnum opus, Suite. Born in Trieste, Italy, Magris has embraced American jazz with a passion, from his celebrations of pianist Elmo Hope, One Night with Hope and More, Volume 1 ...

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Album Review

Roberto Magris: Suite!

Read "Suite!" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Roberto Magris, the Italian pianist who spends a good bit of time in the United States, records prolifically. His latest release is a 2CD set that covers a lot of ground, encompassing sparkling hard bop, spiritual jazz, solo piano work and soulful excursions that feature electric keyboards. For much of the CD Magris plays with a quintet featuring the late Mark Colby on tenor sax, Eric Jacobson on trumpet, Eric Hochberg on bass and Greg Artry on drums. ...

51
Album Review

Roberto Magris: Suite!

Read "Suite!" reviewed by Jack Bowers


When appraising a new recording by Roberto Magris, Rule No. 1 is always to expect the unexpected. On eighteen previous albums, the Italian-born pianist has produced tributes to Lee Morgan, Elmo Hope and Cannonball Adderley, welcomed guest artists Herb Geller, Sam Reed and Ira Sullivan, and led groups ranging from trio to septet, all for Kansas City's JMood Records. In that spirit, Magris' newest two-disc set, Suite!, isn't a suite at all; that is to say, it cannot be defined ...

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Album Review

Roberto Magris: Suite!

Read "Suite!" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Veteran jazz pianist Roberto Magris expands his collaboration with the Kansas City-based JMood label, recording almost two hours of uncommon traditional jazz and offering a mixture of re-arranged standards and original compositions covering fifteen tracks, nicely presented in a double CD package. The majority of the session was recorded while in Chicago in November of 2018. A socially-conscious individual, Magris has always viewed music as a way to express sorely-needed social awareness and introspective messages that make life worthwhile.

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Album Review

Roberto Magris: Suite!

Read "Suite!" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Italian pianist/composer Roberto Magris could not have anticipated the urgent need for a positive message when he recorded Suite! in 2018. The newly released double album reflects Magris' belief that a better world is coming and his certainty is conveyed in a sprawling program of poetry, original compositions, and some surprising covers. He has recorded as the leader of several sextets but here features a new line-up dominated by studio musicians. Chicago bassist Eric Hochberg has worked with ...

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"On the the passionate ballad “Close Enough for Love” bassist Eric Hochberg takes center stage with mellifluous and agile soliloquy that elegantly emerges from the melancholic ensemble play and fades seamlessly back into it." Chicago Jazz Magazine review of Larry Novak's "Invitation" Delmark Records "Hochberg, too, revels in melody; his bass lines often carry an even more lyrical sweep than the pianist’s. His dust-dry tone and splendid technique have elicited praise for nearly four decades, in quite an array of contexts, from accompanying top-drawer soloists at the Jazz Showcase, to his nightly trio gig in the bar at Catch 35 Chicago, to commercial and industrial sessions around town, to producing albums by folk-jazz legend Terry Callier

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Primary Instrument

Bass

Location

Chicago

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

Been teaching jazz and contemporary double bass and bass guitar for much of my 35 year music career. On staff of Roosevelt University CCPA and Merit School of Music in Chicago. Students have been accepted at music schools and conservatories - Lawrence, USC, U of Illinois, Indiana University, Julliard, DePaul University, University of Miami.

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Perfectly Spaced

Calligram Records
2023

buy

Shuffling Ivories

JMood Records
2021

buy

Suite!

JMood Records
2020

buy

First Date

Chickadisc
2019

buy

3

21st Century Entertainment
2012

buy

As You Spend Your Life

Southport Records
2011

buy

Sunset Breeze

From: Suite!
By Eric Hochberg

Exodus

From: Trinity
By Eric Hochberg

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