All About Jazz needs your help and we have a deal. Pay $20 and we'll hide those six pesky Google ads that appear on every page, plus this box and the slideout box on the right for a full year! You'll also fund website expansion.
Rory Hoffman is a Nashville based guitarist, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist. Raised on a small ranch in North Dakota, Rory grew up recording and touring with the family Gospel band. He started teaching himself to play guitar and piano at age 3. By age 5 he was the drummer in the family band. He currently plays over a dozen stringed, keyboard and wind instruments.
Rory's personal musical career was jumpstarted in 1999 upon winning Grand Champion Instrumentalist at the Christian Artist Seminar in the Rockies. In 2001 he traveled to Nashville for the first time to record his Gospel instrumental CD, “Blind Faith”. He then helped form Depot Music Productions, based in Mobridge South Dakota. There he self-produced his second album “fishin'”, this time choosing country music as his theme. While with Depot Music, Rory produced several other studio projects for local and regional artists. in 2004 and 2005 he received Instrumentalist of the Year from the ICMA based in Nashville.
Rory Hoffman is a Nashville based guitarist, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist. Raised on a small ranch in North Dakota, Rory grew up recording and touring with the family Gospel band. He started teaching himself to play guitar and piano at age 3. By age 5 he was the drummer in the family band. He currently plays over a dozen stringed, keyboard and wind instruments.
Rory's personal musical career was jumpstarted in 1999 upon winning Grand Champion Instrumentalist at the Christian Artist Seminar in the Rockies. In 2001 he traveled to Nashville for the first time to record his Gospel instrumental CD, “Blind Faith”. He then helped form Depot Music Productions, based in Mobridge South Dakota. There he self-produced his second album “fishin'”, this time choosing country music as his theme. While with Depot Music, Rory produced several other studio projects for local and regional artists. in 2004 and 2005 he received Instrumentalist of the Year from the ICMA based in Nashville.
Rory moved to Nashville in the spring of 2008. He currently works as a freelance session and touring musician. October 2011, 8 years after his fishin project, Rory released his newest CD “Swing Expedition”. On this project, he demonstrates his abilities and inventiveness on almost every instrument he plays. Tunes range from a gypsy jazz arrangement of a Star Wars Theme, a bossa nova rendition of a classic country song, to an all-harmonica treatment of a Cole Porter Standard. In addition to his own releases, Rory also records and performs regularly with Texas western swing hall of fame member Carolyn Martin, Paul Kramer and Swing Street, and Nashville's premier gypsy jazz trio, the Gypsy Hombres.
exerpt from Now Playing Nashville:
Rory Hoffman can only be described as a force of nature on anything he decides to pick up. This includes accordion, tenor sax and clarinet but of particular note is his has-to-be-seen�”to-be-believed in-his-lap and upside down guitar style, evoking Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian with a little Bucky Pizzarelli mixed in.
Exerpt from Music City Roots:
We were treated to one of the most amazing displays of multi-instrumental virtuosity by a single musician we’ve seen yet on Roots. There was this guy over on a stool on stage right, playing everything in sight
exerpt from Now Playing Nashville:
Rory Hoffman can only be described as a force of nature on anything he decides to pick up. This includes accordion, tenor sax and clarinet but of particular note is his has-to-be-seen�”to-be-believed in-his-lap and upside down guitar style, evoking Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian with a little Bucky Pizzarelli mixed in.
Exerpt from Music City Roots:
We were treated to one of the most amazing displays of multi-instrumental virtuosity by a single musician we’ve seen yet on Roots. There was this guy over on a stool on stage right, playing everything in sight. He skittered across the accordion during the western swing stuff. He played harmonica and mandolin with Chambers. And you could tell he’s just one of those guys who can make magic on any instrument he touches. His name is Rory Hoffman, and he stayed put up there for the third act, because they were the Gypsy Hombres, and really, they are his primary band. And here’s where he got to play what he might say is his primary instrument �” the guitar. Now Rory is an unusual cat. He’s blind and he plays stringed instruments in his lap �” overhand. And what he does with frets and a pick in that unorthodox configuration is nothing short of wondrous. Hoffman is on his way to becoming a guitar deity. His runs, his chordal playing, his octave stuff were all just beyond exciting.
All About Jazz musician profiles are maintained by musicians, publicists and trusted members like you. Interested? Tell us why you would like to improve the Rory Hoffman musician profile.
