{"id":195467,"date":"2026-04-01T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/?p=195467"},"modified":"2026-04-01T16:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:52:13","slug":"the-music-is-hoppin-at-hopkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/community\/the-music-is-hoppin-at-hopkins\/","title":{"rendered":"The Music is Hoppin\u2019 at Hopkins"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chad
Chad Hopkins, owner of Hopkins Brewery and avid jazz-cat. Photo: Brent Landes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyone who has spent a good deal of time around their local music scene knows that good music can come from anywhere. So it should come as little surprise to you when I say that the best improvised jazz in Salt Lake City happens every Wednesday night at Hopkins Brewing Company<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Chad Hopkins<\/strong>, owner of Hopkins and avid jazz-cat himself, credits Gracie\u2019s<\/em><\/a> as his predecessor for the last big jam spot, but says it largely tapered off after COVID, and he wanted to bring it back. \u201cDavid Halliday<\/strong><\/a>, who has been the jazz jam organizer here for 20 years, did a special show here one night and said, \u2018Do you want to start hosting the jazz jam?\u2019 and I said, \u2018Absolutely.\u2019 I was honored because jazz to me is just so important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopkins told me the inspiration for starting this jam actually hearkens back to the history of music in Salt Lake. \u201cUtah has a rich jazz history, and it\u2019s been really limited for the past 20 years; there\u2019s only been like one or two places that are really doing jazz that have stuck around, and this past year I feel like it\u2019s finally taking off again to where it was decades ago [in the] 50s and 60s when it was really huge out here.\u201d<\/p>\n

“You never know what you\u2019re gonna get, it\u2019s very much jazz and that\u2019s what I love about it.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The core of the jam can of course be credited to Hopkins and the house band, but the secret sauce of what makes these jams special is the variety of jammers. \u201cYou get professors, students, traveling musicians and just random people. Sometimes it can get really awkward,\u201d Hopkins concedes, \u201cand then sometimes it\u2019s like, \u2018Whoa, who is playing bass right now?\u2019 You never know what you\u2019re gonna get, it\u2019s very much jazz and that\u2019s what I love about it.\u201d<\/p>\n