Derrick Hodges

Derrick Hodge is a celebrated composer, producer, and bassist equally adept on both electric and upright instruments. While he is best-known as a member of the Robert Glasper Experiment, he is an accomplished session musician who has worked extensively across the jazz, cinematic, and R&B genres. He’s been a go-to collaborator not only for Glasper, but also for Maxwell, Terrance Blanchard, Common, Gretchen Parlato, Mulgrew Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington, Stefan Harris, Helen Sung, & Karriem Riggins, to name a few. Hodge stepped out with his debut solo offering “Live Today” in 2013 to great acclaim. He follow it with The Second in 2016, while also continuing his work with Glasper on ArtScience (also 2016).

To date he has been awarded two Grammys, named a Sundance Composer Fellow, received the Motif Award; one of Nation’s highest honors for Child Advocacy, and his playing on Common’s “BE” has been officially recognized as one of top 20 basslines in Hip Hop History.

Tellingly, Hodge has been the ‘first’ many times in his career: including being the first Black composer to write strings for Hip Hop at Carnegie Hall (as Arranger for Mos Def in the venue’s first full Hip Hop show in 2008), and the first black composer to write symphonic music for Hip Hop with the Houston Symphony (as Creative Director & Arranger for Common with the Houston Symphony in 2019).