Meets Johnny Hodges

hodges
  1. Bunny notes
  2. What's the Rush
  3. Back Beat
  4. What It's All About
  5. 18 Carrots For Rabbit notes
  6. Shady Side

SEE: "Meets The Saxophonists"

hodges-2 Buddy Clark, Johnny Hodges, Mel Lewis, Claude Williamson

July, 1960

 LINER NOTES

This is another in a series of remarkable collaborations between Gerry Mulligan and several of the major jazzmen of our time. Of a previous meeting that involved Gerry and Ben Webster (Verve MG V-8343/MG VS-6104), John S. Wilson noted judiciously in High Fidelity: "It is a rare thing when a flawlessly finished performance of one selection comes out of a jazz recording session. It is almost unheard of to have an entire session remain close to this level of perfection. That, however, was the case in the session that produced this superb disc."

It seems to me that the same appraisal can be made of this colloquy between Gerry Mulligan and Johnny Hodges. Gerry had been looking forward to recording with "The Rabbit" for a long time. He, therefore, welcomed Norman Granz's idea for this series. "Johnny," said Mulligan, "has been one of the men I most enjoyed hearing as long as I can remember. I started playing alto in my teens, after clarinet, and so became particularly interested in Hodges' work with the Ellington band."

Hodges has been - and remains - one of the key stylistic influences on jazz alto saxophone. Early in his career, Hodges was befriended and somewhat influenced by Sidney Bechet but he soon began to form a uniquely lyrical style and sound of his own. In addition to the singing clarity and mellowness of Hodges' tone, his playing is also characterized by consummate poise. He is thoroughly in control of his instrument and there is no split between his conception and his ability to execute all of his ideas. A corollary of Hodges' poise is his capacity for total relaxation -floating, flawless time; unhurried, fully developing ideas; and equal ease in ballads and swingers.

Commenting on the shallow view of some critics that men like Hodges have become superannuated, Mulligan says that "the compulsion to say something `new' every day is a significantly immature way of looking at life. The constant drive to force musicians and other artists to constantly invent something `new' is one of the banes of the creative life; and this particular kind of pressure, incidentally, also reveals something of our whole culture. In any case, if there are people who cannot hear how thoroughly mature and individual Hodges is, I'm sorry for them."

The session was planned ahead in the sense that both Mulligan and Hodges thought about the date for some time before the actual recording, for which Hodges was flown to the west coast. Each of the two protagonists brought in three originals, and each pretty much determined the routines for his own songs. The session went very smoothly, with nearly all the tunes being done in no more than three takes.

Mulligan selected the rhythm section and it includes one of the most reliably swinging and tasteful drummers in the. Los Angeles area, Mel Lewis; the big-sounding Buddy Clark on bass; and Claude Williamson in what I think is his most relaxed and personal playing on record so far. (Listen, for example, to his singularly sensitive work in What's The Rush.)

Like the Ben Webster-Gerry Mulligan dialogue with rhythm, this set too is particularly attractive for its wholly casual air. There's no strain, no trace of pretentiousness. "It is," Mulligan observed in a Gertrude Stein mood, "what it is." There's the gently loping Bunny (a Mulligan reference to Hodges' nickname); Mulligan's superior ballad, What's The Rush, which indicates, by the way, Mulligan's marked growth in this area of composition; the finger-snapping Back Beat; the classic ease of What It's All About which, like the rest of the album, underlines the major stature Mulligan's own playing has now achieved; the crisp byplay of 18 Carrots for Rabbit; and finally, the infectiously autumnal Shady Side.

Mulligan intends to continue the series, and I hope he leaves space for a return conversation with Johnny Hodges. This first one represents a rarely consistent recorded program that won't be dated until jazz itself is.

-NAT HENTOFF