Brass, beats and bonding – jazz muso helps bridge gap between young and old

HE HAS performed with everyone from Tony Bennett to Frank Sinatra, but these days John Hoffman gets just as much satisfaction out of playing the Bob the Builder theme song to kids in the local community.

The jazz musician learned the tune after receiving a request from children at a Connecting Generations Bangalow event a few years back.

“They all looked at me like, ‘What? You don’t know that song?’, so I had to go and learn it before the next event,” he said.

Hoffman grew up in rural Pennsylvania in an area which had a strong German-speaking immigrant community and began playing in an oompah band – wearing lederhosen – as a child.

“My uncle played the trumpet, and I loved him so much and wanted to be him,” he said. “Then he gave me his old trumpet when he got a new one when I was around seven or eight, and that’s how it started.”

He played in a concert band at military school and went on to music school but quit a month before graduation after successfully auditioning for the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

He moved to Sydney after meeting his first wife whilst touring Australia with the Buddy Rich Band, before migrating to Byron Bay with his second wife and her three children in 1990.

Hoffman taught at the Queensland Conservatorium for more than two decades and played in many musicals in Brisbane.

He performed with Sinatra at the opening of Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast in 1988 and has also played with Ella Fitzgerald and Peter Allen.

The 76-year-old became involved with Connecting Generations, which links young families and older people through art, craft, music and dancing, after being invited by its co-founder Ruth Winton-Brown.

“I thought what she was doing was wonderful,” he said.

“I just love anything to do with children and making them happy. They brighten my life.”

The free summer Connecting Generations Bangalow event will be held at Bangalow Heritage House & Museum from 2.30pm to 5pm on Sunday February 9.