Claude Hopkins studied piano while simultaneously pursuing medical studies at
Howard University, of which his parents were members. In 1924, Claude Hopkins
joined Wilbur Sweatman's band for a few months, and the following year he
conducted an orchestra and toured Europe and France with music-hall singer
Joséphine Baker (1906-1975). The orchestra included clarinet saxophonist Sidney
Bechet, who would settle permanently in France after the Second World War.
Hopkins returned to the U.S. in 1926, took charge of Charlie Skeete's orchestra
and played the same year as Louis Armstrong at...