Born July 25th, 1907 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, John Cornelius Hodges is one of the most well known saxophonists in jazz history. His pure tone and wide use of vibrato made him popular during the age of big bands.
Johnny, a.k.a. Rabbit or Jeep, played the drums and piano before starting on soprano sax at the age of 14. Hodges was taught and inspired by Sidney Bechet, although he soon switched to alto as his main horn. In 1928, Hodges' real career started when he joined Duke Ellington's orchestra as lead reed. He played sitting next to other great saxophonists, including Barney Bigard, Ben Webster, Otto Hardwick, Paul Gonsalves, Jimmy Hamilton, Harry Carney, and Russell Procope. Hodges was featured on many popular songs, such as "Ain't What They Used to Be", "I Got It Bad", or "Passion Flower".
In 1951, Hodges, to every band members surprise, left Ellington's orchestra to start a small group of his own. He recruited the famous Al Sears on tenor saxophone. His group had only one big hit, "Castle Rock" (which didn't even feature the altoist). The small group eventually fell apart and Hodges returned to Ellington's band in 1955.
Johnny Hodges never again left Ellington's orchestra until a sudden heart attack killed Hodges on May 11th, 1970 in New York City.
Thanks for your friendship. Looking foreward to "talk" more with you and listen more closely to your music. Enclosing a little taste of The Bluesmates til we meet again. Much respect. Grandpa_Erik
Dear Johnny, this is my festivalad.
I think some german people hit your site, too.
Would you please give me some space for my ad?
TC Sven
Hey Du! Ja genau Du...
wenn Du diese Sprache verstehst und Jazz magst:
das JazzArt Ruhr ist unser erstes Jazzfestival in Witten.
Sei doch so gut und unterstütz uns ein wenig,
auf das viele Leute kommen,
und wir nächstes Jahr weiter machen können.
Dieses Jahr spielen alle auf Eintritt!
Viele tolle Infos zu den Musikern findest
in diesem Onlinemagazin: http://en-mosaik.de/?p=6941
und hier: http://www.myspace.com/jazzartruhr
Lieben Gruss, Sven
Please let me introduce about my new track, “The Amata (Visions in the Sky)”. Amata means “Many” in Japanese, and “Eternity” in Thai language.
・・・・・・・・・・
・This track freely changes the tempo, like BPM 170 → 40 → 190 → (stacks 2 or 4) → 170 → 40.
・The main melody(4/4 rythum) is like classic music's one, but the low part(3/4 rythum) is like jazz-pop's one.
・In the latter half, this track becomes spacy, like 80's progressive hard rock・・・but I only used a piano sound. It will show you what are "visions". Raindrops, comets, clouds・・・Every image will be right.
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Hello! Johnny Hodges
