Jazz Unlimited for July 16, 2017 will be “The Music of Johnny Hodges Away from Duke Ellington.” Johnny Hodges was a major star in the Duke Ellington firmament as the alto saxophonist who played the lyrical compositions of his bandleader. Ellington said his tone was so beautiful it brought tears to his eyes. We will spotlight his music away from the Ellington orbit. We will hear Hodges with his own groups and as a sideman with Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Joe Thomas, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday, Billy Strayhorn, Jazz At the Philharmonic, Billy Taylor, Sr. and Earl Hines. Clark Terry, Ahmad Jamal, Don Byron, Sarah Vaughan, Don Byas, Oliver Nelson, Joe Castro, Phineas Newborn, Jr., Shorty Baker with Doc Cheatham, Mary Lou Williams and Abdullah Ibrahim will play his compositions.
The Slide Show contains my photographs of some of he musicians heard on this show.
The Archive of this show will be available until the morning of July 24, 2017.
Here is Johnny Hodges playing Billy Strayhorn's "Passion Flower" at a concert with Duke Ellington in Copenhagen in 1967.
