Biography
Derrick Hodge has earned acclaim as a composer, producer, and bassist fluent on electric and upright instruments alike. Although his profile rose highest through membership in the Robert Glasper Experiment, he has also functioned as a sought-after session player across jazz, film scoring, and R&B. His collaborative circle has extended well beyond Glasper to include Maxwell, Terence Blanchard, and Common, with Grammy-winning albums credited to each of those artists featuring his contributions. A five-year tenure alongside Blanchard encompassed both performance and compositional duties on the score for Spike Lee's A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina). Further artists who have drawn on Hodge's talents range from Bilal Oliver, Gretchen Parlato, Mulgrew Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington, Stefon Harris, and Helen Sung to Karriem Riggins. He made his solo debut with Live Today in 2013, earning strong critical response, then delivered The Second in 2016 while sustaining ties to Glasper on Artscience, also released that year, and Fuck Yo Feelings in 2020.
Philadelphia native Hodge initially took up electric guitar before turning to electric bass during elementary school. He participated in his school's concert band and orchestra, later encountering the contrabass in junior high without any formal training on the instrument. Self-taught, he translated his electric techniques by observing fellow string players in the orchestra. Throughout high school he performed in the orchestra while devoting free time to the diverse sounds emerging in Philadelphia, spanning R&B, hip-hop, gospel, and jazz; during this formative stretch, James Poyser and Jethaniel Nixon ranked among his chief influences.
Hodge enrolled at Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music, where he pursued jazz composition and performance while receiving private instruction on both upright and electric basses from Vince Fay. He belonged to the Temple University Jazz Band and Small Ensemble directed by Terell Stafford, as well as the Temple University Symphony Orchestra and New Music Chamber Orchestra. Beyond campus, he studied with Christian McBride at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Academy.
Still a student, Hodge began recording with numerous Philadelphia R&B and hip-hop figures such as Jill Scott, Musiq (Soulchild), and Floetry. In 2003 he joined pianist Mulgrew Miller's live and recording ensemble. The following year he supplied the featured bass work on Common's hit recording Be. Around the same period he started composing. Time spent under Terence Blanchard proved pivotal, as Hodge expanded from playing and composing into formal film-composition study. He supplied cues for Blanchard's score to Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and additional pieces for the trumpeter/composer's A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) in 2006. That same year Hodge appeared on Stefon Harris' celebrated African Tarantella. In 2007 he contributed music, bass, and production to Common's Finding Forever, later appearing on two further albums by the rapper. Additional R&B and hip-hop artists who enlisted him included Timbaland, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Kanye West, and Gerald Levert.
Hodge scored the Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie documentary Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans in 2008. That year he also joined the Robert Glasper Experiment alongside Chris Dave and Casey Benjamin while composing the score for Edet Belzberg's The Recruiter. The RGE made their recorded debut on the 2009 album Double Booked; Hodge simultaneously served as bandleader and musical director for Maxwell's BLACKsummers'night, performed on Blanchard's Choices, and played on Gretchen Parlato's In a Dream. Throughout 2011 he recorded and toured with the RGE before the group tracked the landmark jazz-R&B-pop crossover hit Black Radio, issued in February 2012; touring continued through the remainder of that year and into 2013. Also in 2012, M.K. Asante's documentary The Black Candle, scored by Hodge, premiered on the Starz cable network.
Hodge signed with Blue Note Records and began tracking his solo debut during tour breaks. Early in 2013 Black Radio received the Grammy for Best R&B Album. His self-produced Live Today appeared in August, featuring every member of the RGE plus Common, Poyser, Aaron Parks, and others; the album reached the jazz charts and maintained resonance well afterward. Even while touring with Glasper, Hodge completed another solo project. Acting as composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, he finished Second in early 2016, performing nearly every instrument and supplying his own vocals. Drummer Mark Colenburg appeared on three tracks, while trumpeter Keyon Harrold, trombonist Corey King, and tenor saxophonist Marcus Strickland formed the horn section on another. Second arrived at the end of August, three weeks before the Robert Glasper Experiment released its third studio album, Artscience. Alongside promotional touring, Hodge maintained a demanding schedule of other work, appearing on Karriem Riggins' Headnod Suite in 2017, with Glasper's R+R=NOW on Collagically Speaking in 2018, with Terri Lyne Carrington on Waiting Game, and with Philip Bailey on the acclaimed Love Will Find a Way, his first studio album in 18 years. Hodge sustained his longstanding partnership with Glasper on the pianist's mixtape-style solo release Fuck Yo Feelings.
In June 2020 Hodge issued his third solo album, Color of Noize, which also became the name of his new band. Co-produced with Blue Note's Don Was, the project marked his first recording to feature a live band in the studio, its core personnel comprising Jahari Stampley and Michael Aaberg on keyboards, Mike Mitchell and Justin Tyson on drums, and DJ Jahi Sundance on turntables. Hodge handled bass, keys, guitar, and voice. The music channeled the bassist's synthesis of aesthetic influences and experiences through jazz's characteristic immediacy and flow, merging that sensibility with hip-hop grooves and sophisticated spiritual soul into a cohesive whole.
Philadelphia native Hodge initially took up electric guitar before turning to electric bass during elementary school. He participated in his school's concert band and orchestra, later encountering the contrabass in junior high without any formal training on the instrument. Self-taught, he translated his electric techniques by observing fellow string players in the orchestra. Throughout high school he performed in the orchestra while devoting free time to the diverse sounds emerging in Philadelphia, spanning R&B, hip-hop, gospel, and jazz; during this formative stretch, James Poyser and Jethaniel Nixon ranked among his chief influences.
Hodge enrolled at Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music, where he pursued jazz composition and performance while receiving private instruction on both upright and electric basses from Vince Fay. He belonged to the Temple University Jazz Band and Small Ensemble directed by Terell Stafford, as well as the Temple University Symphony Orchestra and New Music Chamber Orchestra. Beyond campus, he studied with Christian McBride at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Academy.
Still a student, Hodge began recording with numerous Philadelphia R&B and hip-hop figures such as Jill Scott, Musiq (Soulchild), and Floetry. In 2003 he joined pianist Mulgrew Miller's live and recording ensemble. The following year he supplied the featured bass work on Common's hit recording Be. Around the same period he started composing. Time spent under Terence Blanchard proved pivotal, as Hodge expanded from playing and composing into formal film-composition study. He supplied cues for Blanchard's score to Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and additional pieces for the trumpeter/composer's A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) in 2006. That same year Hodge appeared on Stefon Harris' celebrated African Tarantella. In 2007 he contributed music, bass, and production to Common's Finding Forever, later appearing on two further albums by the rapper. Additional R&B and hip-hop artists who enlisted him included Timbaland, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Kanye West, and Gerald Levert.
Hodge scored the Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie documentary Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans in 2008. That year he also joined the Robert Glasper Experiment alongside Chris Dave and Casey Benjamin while composing the score for Edet Belzberg's The Recruiter. The RGE made their recorded debut on the 2009 album Double Booked; Hodge simultaneously served as bandleader and musical director for Maxwell's BLACKsummers'night, performed on Blanchard's Choices, and played on Gretchen Parlato's In a Dream. Throughout 2011 he recorded and toured with the RGE before the group tracked the landmark jazz-R&B-pop crossover hit Black Radio, issued in February 2012; touring continued through the remainder of that year and into 2013. Also in 2012, M.K. Asante's documentary The Black Candle, scored by Hodge, premiered on the Starz cable network.
Hodge signed with Blue Note Records and began tracking his solo debut during tour breaks. Early in 2013 Black Radio received the Grammy for Best R&B Album. His self-produced Live Today appeared in August, featuring every member of the RGE plus Common, Poyser, Aaron Parks, and others; the album reached the jazz charts and maintained resonance well afterward. Even while touring with Glasper, Hodge completed another solo project. Acting as composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, he finished Second in early 2016, performing nearly every instrument and supplying his own vocals. Drummer Mark Colenburg appeared on three tracks, while trumpeter Keyon Harrold, trombonist Corey King, and tenor saxophonist Marcus Strickland formed the horn section on another. Second arrived at the end of August, three weeks before the Robert Glasper Experiment released its third studio album, Artscience. Alongside promotional touring, Hodge maintained a demanding schedule of other work, appearing on Karriem Riggins' Headnod Suite in 2017, with Glasper's R+R=NOW on Collagically Speaking in 2018, with Terri Lyne Carrington on Waiting Game, and with Philip Bailey on the acclaimed Love Will Find a Way, his first studio album in 18 years. Hodge sustained his longstanding partnership with Glasper on the pianist's mixtape-style solo release Fuck Yo Feelings.
In June 2020 Hodge issued his third solo album, Color of Noize, which also became the name of his new band. Co-produced with Blue Note's Don Was, the project marked his first recording to feature a live band in the studio, its core personnel comprising Jahari Stampley and Michael Aaberg on keyboards, Mike Mitchell and Justin Tyson on drums, and DJ Jahi Sundance on turntables. Hodge handled bass, keys, guitar, and voice. The music channeled the bassist's synthesis of aesthetic influences and experiences through jazz's characteristic immediacy and flow, merging that sensibility with hip-hop grooves and sophisticated spiritual soul into a cohesive whole.
Albums
Run The World: Season 2 (Music from the STARZ Original Series)
2023
Run The World: Season 1 (Music from the STARZ Original Series)
2021
COLOR OF NOIZE
2020
The Second
2016
Live Today
2013
Singles
