KENYON HOPKINS is one of jazz's great composers and arrangers - though he's very little known today. He spent much of his career during the 1950s and 1960s in the New York studios, where he became king of "the concept album." Most of these novelty  recordings appeared under others' names, including "The Creed Taylor Orchestra," Joe Bushkin and Susan Barrett. But he made a name for himself with his spare and moody jazz scores (often featuring jazz greats like Phil Woods in improvising roles) for such films as Baby Doll, 12 Angry Men and The Hustler. 

His music is, perhaps, best known today from his work as Paramount TV's music director (1969-73), where he contributed to such shows as The Brady Bunch, Mannix , The Odd Couple and Mission: Impossible. Hopkins's most distinct contribution to music, though, remains  the well-defined "sound of the city" he crafted on a number of soundtracks to city-based dramas and an excellent series of "sound tours" he recorded in the early 1960s. To date, none of Kenyon Hopkins's music has found life on CD - except the recent release of the Baby Doll (1956) soundtrack - and his records, ultra-rare and hard to find, fetch often very high prices. 

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