Life and Work...

"There were definitely changes happening in his playing in the fifties. We began to hear, I'd say, a slightly disillusioned Johnny Hodges. There crept in a note of cynicism and toughness in is playing. The idealism was being tempered by the reality of the post-war world. he was less concerned with romantic idealism and more into a blues feeling and an almost kind of erotic, sensual quality in his playing. His tone became coarser you might say, but also more dynamic in many ways. His sound developed an edge."

The quotation is from Bob Wilber, addressing the International Duke Ellington Study Group Conference in Oldham, 1988.

Wilber identified four periods in Hodges' career: 'hot', romantic, exotic, and funky, each spanning a decade of his career. The talk is fascinating and a video of it may be found here.

While Bob Wilber identifies each of these four periods as the stages in Johnny's development as an artist, I wonder, too, if that isn't the stages in the development of the man, the journey from romanticism to cynicism, one familiar to many during the course of their lifetime. That his experiences came through his horn, however, speaks to the quality of his artistry. When the life is the work, that's one definition of genius.

Here is a little of the genius of Johnny Hodges at work, a recording which is part of The Savory Collection, from Hodges' romantic era in the thirties: Jeep is Jumpin'...