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In his eulogy of saxophonist Johnny Hodges (1907-70), Duke Ellington ended with the words, "Never the world's most highly animated showman or greatest stage personality, but a tone so beautiful it sometimes brought tears to the eyesthis was Johnny Hodges. This is Johnny Hodges." Hodges' unforgettable tone resonated throughout the jazz world over the greater part of the twentieth century. Benny Goodman described Hodges as "by far the greatest man on alto sax that I ever heard," and Charlie Parker compared him to Lily Pons, the operatic soprano. As a teenager, Hodges developed his playing style by imitating Sidney Bechet, the New Orleans soprano sax player, then honed it in late-night cutting sessions in New York and a succession of bands lead by Chick Webb, Willie "The Lion" Smith, and Luckey Roberts. In 1928 he joined Duke Ellington, beginning an association that would continue, with one interruption, until Hodges' death. Hodges' celebrated technique and silky tone marked him then, and still today, as one of the most important and influential saxophone players in the history of jazz. As the first ever biography on Johnny Hodges,
Rabbit's Blues details his place as one of the premier artists of the alto sax in jazz history, and his role as co-composer with Ellington.
List of contents
- Epigraph
- Prologue
- 1. A Sax is Born
- 2. Young Man With a Sax
- 3. His Tone
- 4. Scuffling in New York
- 5. The Competition
- 6. The Partnership Begins
- 7. Women and Children
- 8. Outside the Ellington Constellation: 30's and 40's
- 9. The Small Groups
- 10. Swee' Pea
- 11. Blanton, Webster and the Forties
- 12. Food and Drink
- 13. The Coming of Bird
- 14. The Rabbit Strays
- 15. The Rabbit Returns
- 16. Outside the Ellington Constellation: 50's and 60's
- 17. The Quality of Song
- 18. Lagomorphology
- 19. The Blues
- 20. The Out Chorus
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
About the author
Con Chapman's work has appeared in
The Atlantic, The Boston Globe and
The Christian Science Monitor, and his writings on jazz have appeared in
The American Bystander,
The Boston Herald and
Brilliant Corners. He is the author of two novels, thirty-two stage plays, fifty books of humor, and
The Year of the Gerbil, a history of the 1978 Red Sox-Yankees pennant race.
Summary
The first full-length biography of Johnny Hodges, Rabbit's Blues tells the story of one of the premier saxophonists in jazz history, who brought the woody tone and bluesy technique of New Orleans music to the hot East Coast jazz of the Ellington orchestra.
Additional text
Johnny Hodges' unmistakable sound on alto saxophone was at the heart of the Ellington orchestra for decades. Except for brief periods, Hodges's extraordinary career spanned the long life of the Ellington Orchestra, from when Hodges joined the band in 1928, at the start of its Cotton Club years, until Duke's death in 1974. Hodges, a reserved person, was nonetheless a perennial crowd-pleaser and poll-winner, and an idol to countless aspiring jazz saxophonists. Con Chapman helps uncover the details of Hodges' personal life, and his ascendance as a prominent jazz soloist with the 'Beyond Category' Ellington Orchestra, and on his own.
