Johnny Hodges

Hodges Cornelius Johnny, called The Rabbit , ( the rabbit buissonnier ) saxophonist viola and American soprano (Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 25th, 1906 - New York, May 11th, 1970).

Johnny Hodges is one of the largest designers of the jazz Swing.

Biography

Musician autoditacte, it started to play of the battery and the piano before devoting himself to the saxophone at the fourteen years age. He was discovered by Sidney Bechet which gave him lessons. In 1927, it joined the orchestra of Chick Webb and in 1928, enters the orchestra of Duke Ellington which it will leave only with his death, except one period of 1951 with 1955 where it directs his own training where appear many defectors of the orchestra of Ellington like the trombonist Lawrence Brown or the pianist Billy Strayhorn but also of young musicians like John Coltrane. The sound and the virtuosity of Hodges are an essential component of the orchestral color ellingtonienne and many pieces of the orchestra are especially designed to emphasize the play of the altist. With each concert, the title " Things Ain' T What They Used To Be " is thus the occasion of the demonstration of the masterliness of Hodges. Ellington itself declared after the disappearance of Hodges: " Because of this great loss, our orchestra will sound avant" never again;.

Style

Johnny Hodges is one of those which pushed the control of its instrument at its higher point of completion. Its acute sense of balance in the construction of its solos is combined with an expressive, sensual sound without being mièvre, a beautiful melody smoothness and a high rhythmic degree of accuracy. It is one of the rare musicians in whom it Jazz incarnated his own classicism.

Discography

Recordings: with Duke Ellington

  • The Mooche (1928)
  • has gipsy without has song (1938) off
  • The jeep is jumpin' (1956)
  • Beale Street blues (1956)
  • All me (1959)
  • Thing' S ain' T what they used to Be (1959)
  • One the sunny side off the street (1937)

Under its Name

  • Dooji-wooji (1939)
  • Squatty Roo (1940)
  • That' S the blues old man (at the soprano, 1940)
  • Loneliness (1965)
  • Wings and Things (1965)

Sources

  • Jacques Réda, " Johnny Hodges" in Dictionary of the Jazz, Robert Laffont, 1994

  • Jacques Réda, " The Rabbit Centenaire" in Jazz Magazine, n°583, June 2007

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