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Johnny Hodges on Radio 3 Tonight

Young Col

Young Col

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Just an alert that Geoffrey Smith's Jazz tonight at midnight (BST) on BBC Radio 3 focusses on Johnny Hodges. It will no doubt be presented with Geoffrey Smith's usual knowledgable discussion and music selection. Worth a listen for that ravishing tone and insinuating long glissandos. Even if you miss it tonight it's available on the BBC i-player (for those who can access it) from the Radio 3 jazz page for the next week.

YC
Apologies for the header typo - don't know how to correct it!
 
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Re: Johny Hodges on Radio 3 Tonight

Regardless of the spelling I'll be downloading from iPlayer , thanks YC. My favourite of all favourites :)
 
Re: Johny Hodges on Radio 3 Tonight

I am? .... gosh! Oh sorry, thought you meant me, not Rabbit, Jeep....
:shocked:. Anyway, the playlist looks good, although I'd have liked to have found room for the great Isfahan, from the Far East Suite, or Blues for New Orleans from the New Orleans Suite (his last recording), as mentioned in another thread recently.
YC
 
Re: Johny Hodges on Radio 3 Tonight

Young Col said:
I am? .... gosh! Oh sorry, thought you meant me, not Rabbit, Jeep....
:shocked:. Anyway, the playlist looks good, although I'd have liked to have found room for the great Isfahan, from the Far East Suite, or Blues for New Orleans from the New Orleans Suite (his last recording), as mentioned in another thread recently.
YC
Click to expand...

Lol - I have a long list of favourites so you could be in there at any given time. I haven't seen the playlist but I have only just discovered Isfahan from the thread you mentioned. Isn't it a beautiful tune? I'd like to hear more of the Far East Suite and will get around to it soon. Happy listening :)
 
Re: Johny Hodges on Radio 3 Tonight

Listened to it on the way home from last night's gig - beautiful stuff, even though I'm not usually a fan of that era of jazz.
 
Re: Johny Hodges on Radio 3 Tonight

Well I think it goes to show you can appreciate technique and musical beauty without being a particular devotee of a style.

I hadn't heard Blood Count, an emotional epitaph for Billy Strayhorn, before. It shows two sides of Hodges - lyrical tenderness and searing intensity. Just wonderful. The final blues number included both Charlie Parker (which showed how well he could play blues) and Ben Webster, and was a pointer towards next week programme - a focuss on Ben Webster himself. That's worth looking forward to.

Re Isfahan, there's the live version from Jazz 625 on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxYj6SCKXos (uploaded by the composer/educator John Harle). I remember seeing that when it was first broadcast sometime on the late 1960s and the impact it had on me. If you can get hold of the whole programme it was terrific, including one of Paul Gonsalves' rabble rousing tenor solos and a great drum solo from Sam Woodyard; fortunately I taped it when it was re-broadcast a few years ago.
YC
 
Re: Johny Hodges on Radio 3 Tonight

Hi YC - I've seen that clip of Isfahan and thought how wonderful it was to see Duke holding the sheet music for Rabbit to play. I've just ordered the New Orleans Suite CD from Amazon for the bargain price of £4.97 inc post. I'm googling like crazy to find the entire programme you mentioned but no luck yet. (Dog with bone, me when I get going - lol) - just about to listen to the podcast of the prog now and look forward to next week too. Ben Webster, another of my favourite favourites :)
 
Re: Johny Hodges on Radio 3 Tonight

Watch Hodges' eyes when Ellington is holding the music for him. Does he ever look at the paper? Apparently this was the usual routine for Isfahan. I saw the Ellington band on each of their visits to the UK in the 50's and 60's and this happened every time Isfahan was played. Hodges eyes were anywhere but on the paper. I heard somewhere that Hodges and Russell Procope had a wager on how many exits there were in each venue they played so they both spent time looking round counting them.
O.C.V.
 
Re: Johny Hodges on Radio 3 Tonight

Yes I think it was a bit of Ellington hokum too. It might have been Humph who suggested he was counting the exits.
Sue - I can't find the whole 625 prog either. There is a part of Sam Woodyard's drum solo, from the Timon of Athens music, but that and Isfahan is about it. Jeep's Blues from Geoffrey Smith's prog is on the Ellington at Newport album and contains, among other other gems, Paul Gonsalves' 18 or so chorusses on Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue (after which the crowd had to be calmed down).

On Ben Webster, I recently bought a two CD set of the complete Ben Webster/Sweets Edison/Billie Holiday recordings from Amazon. Some absolute delights on them, including a lovely version of We'll Be Together Again: a gorgeous Ben Webster solo and altogether the kind of track you'd have played at your funeral if you wanted everyone to get the tissues out!
 
Re: Johny Hodges on Radio 3 Tonight

Last night's (or rather early this morning's) programme on Ben Webster lived up to expectations. The play list included some great ballad tracks, some of which I had not heard before, including a beautiful version of Tenderly. Lots of that lovely, almost toneless, breathy vibrato. Also an unusual Latin intro to Tiger Rag that soon drops into a modern/mainstream groove, propelled by Shelley Manne.

And next week continues in the sax vein, with a focus on another, very different great, Johnny Griffin. I saw him at Ronnie Scott's once and I had a head full of the music the whole of the next day.
 

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