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Down Beat Hall of Fame Scholarships 1967

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320 views5 pages

Down Beat Hall of Fame Scholarships 1967

Uploaded by

api-25886385
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
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A ars) FREDDIE HUBBARD BILL COSBY th DE FAUT By STANLEY DANCE Willing body guard beready at 7? Johnny Hodges 20as preparing for his daily march from the Hotel OUR the Dennis to the ballroom at the end of the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, N.J., where boardwalk Duke Ellington’s band was playing a week last August. © It may Wiha been a ni but it seemed like it that with hot, humid evening, because holidaymakers © jammed the Doar Although he had been johnn playing with organist Wild Bill Davis until Bey daybreak Hodges looked surprisingly hodges fit as he sauntered along. “J don’t sleep long at a time,” he said.“I gaveupcigarets six years ago, and I haven’t had a drink since April 26, when the doctor said it would be best for me to quit. Now... you see that shape?” A girl was moving down the Boardwalk ahead with an undulating walk, Hodges was silent but observant. It was barely 8 p.m. when he reached the dressing room behind the ballroom stage. The band didn’t hit until 8:30, and, as he leisurely changed, he began to reminisce: “We were in Antibes this summer, the town where Sidney Bechet was married, where they had the parade and everything. They have a square named after him there and a bust in the park. It’s about 3 feet tall, P’d say, and mounted on a pedestal. They took my picture looking at it, and it brought back some memories. It’s kind of odd that it’s where it is, but he was very well known and lived in France for years. There isn’t anything similar in this country that I know of, but there ought to be. He ought to be in the Down Beat Hall of Fame, too, and I hope he will be. “I met him in Boston years and years ago, when he was playing in burlesque, in Jimmy Cooper’s Black and White Show. 1 had a lot of nerve when I went backstage to see him, with my little curved soprano wrapped up under my arm. But my sister knew him, and I made my- self known. What's that under your arm, he asked me. “A soprana? "Can you play it?” **Sure, I suid, although I had only had it about two days. "Well, play something," he said “So I played My Honey's Lovin’ Arms, "He encouraged me. “That's nice,’ he said, think sopranos were played more in those days, but I just liked mine because it looked so pretty. Later 1 changed to alto, for so many people told me where it fied in the family of saxophones, although at that time a lot, fof musicians were playing’ C-melody, and some bass Saxophone, besides the others. I took to alto, but cophone, or Tater I ran into Bechet again. T had taken a of playing lead and then jumping up and playing solos, to0, ‘was a heavy one. So I just laid it away. I know the soprano hhas come back into popularity, and some day I hope to get ‘mine out again. I'd like to get it together and then make Before Antibes, the Ellington band had been to Dakar for the frst World Festival of Negro Aris. Hodges seemed to have taken Alrica in stride, “There was the city, of course, and the people,” he said. “The drummers were Sam Woodvard'’s stick, but I've been listening to drummers for years, and 1 heard a lot when ‘my daughter was dancing in the African Village at the New York World's Fair. I used to go out there regular- ly. The Watusis had that terrific rhythm. They'd But those big drums on top of their heads—a hand at one end, and then take the sticks with the liking to his playing, and to Louis Armstrong's, . Which T hcard ‘On the Clarence. Willams jaz lier and tate them. 1 don't think Sum le [ire fecords Woodyard ever heard them, but hes bora didn’t have any tuition, and I didn’t is doing that rhythm for years. He just fell Bee ai boos A teens Aacste Tah in tec very nght bs does i Bet dee cad owed oaths sets ae where But [ don't think more than-iwo or three Ite iegid the tor, aad Te ys inthe band Know what It inte by mp for my on you I nw i Ba in ey feetk tes eo facet a eae we Tar oat os gor a ee Nec as ede Bo oF thre blocks i wes ar thougi thos lien coperence uupht me sot selig he find Rims edig cea you I way ucng te Side pups le Ono Hardwicke and: Barney it chatinet player yesterday who worked out Bigard. They were very helpful to me. Before Hodges had got the saxophone, he ‘drums, but not professionally. He also played “house hop" iano. (Hodges’ family, from his mother to his son and daughter play piano for enjoyment.) He remembers playing house parties for $8 a night and that once, when Count Basie vas in town with a show, he took over as Hodges’ reliet man, “After we had moved irom Cambridge to Hammond St. in Boston,” Hodges said, “there were several other young musicians nearby. Howard Johnson used to live around ‘the cornet from me on Shumant Ave. His was a very. ‘musical family. He played saxophone, his brother Bobby. played banjo, his mother, his sister, his other brother, and his unele—they all played piano. Charlie Holmes lived on. ‘Tremont St., and I think he took up saxophone in the high school band. Harry Carney lived just a couple of blocks away on Cunard Si.” Hodges went back to soprano when he joined Sidney Bechet at his club, the Club Bechet, on 145th St. and Seventh Aye. in New York. Bechet had another soprano, ‘straight one, that he gave fo Hodges and would teach him different tunes to play as duets. Hodges learned the intro- duetions and solos, and if Bechet was late, would take ‘over until he got there. This was in 1923 or 1924, before he joined either Chick Webb or Ellington, The latter used fo come to Boston every summer and ask Hodges to join ‘him, the altoist said “Neither the straight nor the curved soprano is easy to play,” he continued, “and both are just as hard to keep in fune, But there is an advantage to the curved one—you an chest more on it. There are a lot of ways of cheating, though many saxophone players might not approve of them. T think you ean get the same tone on the curved one as on the straight, but you've got (o practice every day. ‘You can’t just pick it up and play one chorus tonight, and ‘then play it again two nights Tater. T gave it up when Cootie Williams left the band in 1940. The last thing we played was That's the Blues, Old Man.” ‘There was no special reason that he gave it up, but he ‘was getting a lot of alto solos to play and figured they were responsibility enough. “Duke had been writing a whole lot of arrangements with soprano on top,” Hodges said, “and the responsibility Ie D DOWN Bear there with Olatunji, and he was telling me that after you put those drums on top of your head, you could imagine you could hear a whole arrangement ‘with violins, harps, tes, piccolos, and everything—through the drums and the beat. ‘I guess i's something like when a bass player puts his head! down on the strings. ‘Tue NicHT before the foregoing conversation, there bad been a live recording session at Grace's Little Belmont on N. Kentucky Aye. The room is small, but the producer and engineer had managed fo get all the recording equipment into a window alcove. Wild Bill Davis and his organ, Dickey ‘Thompson, guitar; Bob Brown, tenor saxophone, flute; and Bobby Durham, drums, normally had minimal working space in the middle of the oval bar, but now Hodges and trombonist Lawrence Brown were added to their number and accommodated by a slight extension of the stand into ‘one of the bar gangways. ‘Although it was very hot, the atmosphere was happy and {ull of anticipation. Across the street, the doors of the Club Harlem were wide open, and the loud sounds of the alter- nating Willis Jackson and Jimmy Tyler bands were wafted in between numbers, ‘There were numerous jazzmen working the Atlantic City clubs that week, and the Ellington musicians, Duke among them, came by to size up the situation, Buster Cooper and Chuck Connors, of the trombone section, were there all the time, “We have to support our leader," Cooper said with a arin, nodding in Lawrence Brown's direction, Paul Gonsalves arrived from another club, where he had been jamming. t's how it is sometimes in the band,” he said apprecia- tively. “When Rab [Hodges] feels like blowing, he stirs us all. He's got a heart, believe me, and he'd give you the shirt off his back.” Brown was causing a lot of excitement, too, playing with ‘unusual fire and energy. The word got around among young local musicians, who soon came in to listen. “They don't often get a chance to hear trombone playing like that down here,” Hodges said, as he sipped a Coke at the bar during intermission. “They nearly all play saxo- phone, because that’s what they (Continued on page 40) JOHNNY HODGES (Continued from page 18) hhear most of with the organ groups, and they go around like qualighters tying to fut each other down. You can tell by the Way they Took that Lawrence got to ‘em.” ‘Then everything was shaking onthe stand again, Fellow Ellington altoist Rus- sell Procope was eslebrating hie birthday, and he, his wife, Cue Hodges (Johnny's Wife), and Cooper were dancing like & chorus line in the isle, ‘The tempo changed, and the group went into a standard Hodges had thought of 8 he walked by the sea t0 the club “Lets do it again,” he called to the at ‘man. ‘They did it three times, and then it ‘Wasnt the famous standard any longer. "You see what T mean?” Brown asked when he came off. “He's been doing that all his life. He geis an idea, thinks up a ‘couniermelody, and you end up with a Whole new song. Yet nobody seems (0 recognize him as the composer he i.” Hodges was happy with what had happened. T think that will be enough for to- night," he said, Tier, in the hotel, he looked up from his tea and lemon and asked, “You re- member when Duke went to England with Ray Nance and Kay Davis in 1948, after his operation? Well, while we were laying ‘off, Russell Procope nd T came to Atlantic Cily with our wives for a little vacation, ‘One night, we decided to go to the ele Down Beat’s Tenth Annual Hall of Fame Scholarship Program mont and hear Wild Bill, He invited us 10 a jam session, so we took our horns and jammed until 7 oF 8 in the morning. “Our jamming drew most of the people ‘over from the Club Harlem, anda couple of clubowners from New York heard 1s One of them had the Apollo Bar on 125th Sty and when we got Bick, he approached ‘me shout getting a little’ band logether. So Billy Strayhorn, Tyree Glenn, Jimmy Hamilton, Sonny Greer, Al Hibbler, and T went in there, and we got very lucky and started putting 125th St. on the map ‘gain, Tater’ on, We added Junior Raglin on bass, and we stayed there for seven ‘weeks, until Duko came back, He got Tight Off the boat and eame to the Apollo Bar to find ot what was going on and whether we Were going to continue with this litle band, But We were loyal, and wwe broke the band up and came back.” ‘A few days afler the most roeent ses sion at the Tittle Belmont, Hodges was nto something else again, this time in Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood, NJ, studio. The band consisted “of Snook ‘Young and Ernie Roysl, trumpots; Tomy Siudd, trombone: Frank Wess, Jerome Richardson, Jimmy Hemilion, and Don Ashworth, reeds, Woodwinds; Hank Jones, pisno; Kenny Burrell, guitar: Bob Cran shaw, bass; and Grady Tate, deus, Jimny Jones wrote the scores and conducted, “T tried to give Johnny a new frame: work,” Tones ssid. “It was certaily unlike any in which the altoist previously had ‘een recorded. The musicians soon were stealing sn agreeably smooth ensemble sound, but Jones detected. imperfections tnd began to wrestle with them, Hodges, as soloist, stepped away from the debate, “That's why.” he seid, taking off his hat, “T sil have all my halt!" ‘When the problem had been ironed out and a clean take of Blue Notes made, he fame over to where Tom Whale}, an ar Tanger-copyist who has been astociated with Ellington for several years, was sit {ing, Whaley, also from Boston, is lose t0 Hodges, and his seniority in age permits ‘him to act a5 the voice of dissent, “You ought to record with some gut- ‘bucket musicians,” Whaley sai, This was somewhat unexpected, 10 say the Teast, because Whaley never hesitates to ‘claim ‘against sloppy playing that may ‘occur on Fllington recording dates “There's a diference bowen ‘inside’ and “oulside’ musicians,” “Hodges “coun tered, “Studio musicians play more exact” ‘Whaley, meanwhile, was paying close atteaton to Jimmy Jones" writing, “You know,” he said suddenly, “I think Yi go ‘and take one of these modern curses in arranging. There's always some- thing new to learn.” At the next session, Hodges recorded ‘nother original, Broad Walk, with Royal Using. the plunger effectively ina big, shouting climax, Now where id you get that from?” ‘Whaley asked. Hodges smiled and said, “Remember the Boardwalk in Atlantic’ City, young ran?” own, Seat hos etched two ful year's schleshies ond 10 portat seroletins foe Tongs, Sulee Seco of Male Gontony te Feet peomimrtschoie in tho Uae chd oot oF carnerpeery mois marl he, Nel of Fas beloghip i ofr to furor Ames mae saa, ein me 1 opstuate inp of es This yeor's two full scholerchipg,volued at $960 cach, wit te fn foray of ie fst Si rn em chown of oa: Gou flt atl? {5 the compels wine, wall be Sicsed Uy c'blonl of ed Shpolnted By own eat z Bex she _fen, oddtonal scholorhips will const of four $500 and six 3250" ofen = WHO IS ELIGIBLE? ete arse rm Pi hos td ws na ecneg el WO 13th Bnhday en orbelte Send SSG a Senior disin: Any inerumentlt ‘or strange eomposer who, wll hye" had Ms Tar her! 19th braiay or Bee rece, Yi ‘Avyone, rgarlers of national reise, falling the bove require, cre eof SS ‘i x Hell of Fome Schoen Data Bewal Bene a BED. Adame St, Chicoge, linols 60608 Pesso send mo, by lure mall, oh offical application for the fi Peele ie Bel of Rare cr tee TSHaL ns 40 1 DOWN aEAT Slatin: fo Bs oworied re os flows: two full scholahiog of SL Se hota S808 ah, SN Fa RE RSE . DATES OF COMPETITION: gel Setins mesh i etmared oot tor thon mish Aoi 187, fae Dan Basen? PMT WI Be ereuncod i HOW JUDGED:

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