It’s likely that most folks familiar with Johnny Hodges know him for his crucial role as alto saxophonist in the orchestra of Duke Ellington. There’s not a thing wrong with the parameters of that knowledge, but in fact Hodges’ career encompassed more. Those looking for a welcoming contemporary entry point into Hodges’ artistry should check out saxophonist-bandleader Owen Broder’s new album Hodges: Front and Center, Vol. 1, which is out now on vinyl and digital via Outside in Music. Covering both long-celebrated and lesser-known works, it features exemplary playing by a top-flight band embodying the warmth and vigor that endures at the heart of Hodges’ music.
Based in New York City, Owen Broder is an instrumentalist specializing in four saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone), clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute. Along with leading the American Roots Project and his quintet Cowboys and Frenchman, Broder has played in numerous collaborative bands, has worked in theater pits on and off Broadway, and is an award winning composer and arranger.
For Hodges: Front and Center, Vol. 1, Broder is joined by trumpeter Riley Mulherkar, pianist Carmen Staaf, bassist Barry Stephenson, and drummer Bryan Carter. Collectively, they pull off a difficult task, remaining true to the stylistic essence of the sources while avoiding coming off like a second-rate imitation or a fragile relic.
It helps that the compositions chosen are varied and even surprising and yet don’t sideline the importance of Ellington in Hodges’ creative trajectory. For instance, opener “Royal Garden Blues,” a Clarence Williams-Spencer Williams composition from 1919, is connected to Duke through the song’s inclusion on the 1959 small-group album for Verve, Back to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues.
Anyone who’s heard that recording will recognize the version here, though the spotlight that’s thrown onto Mulherkar’s dynamic playing adds distinctiveness as he leads the charge in establishing the theme and then takes a fine solo. Broder’s solo on alto is also quite sharp, and Staaf springboards from Ellington’s baseline with aplomb.
The next track, “Viscount,” is more directly related to Mercer Ellington, who co-wrote it with Hodges, than it is to Duke, though the source recording, The Big Sound, cut for Verve in 1957, does feature a broad lineup of Hodges’ Ellington bandmates (and with Billy Strayhorn on the 88s). The version here is more full-bodied as the iris gets tightened onto a smaller band, and it’s nearly double the length, in part due to a solid solo by Stephenson.
Later on Front and Center, Broder and band revisit The Big Sound through “Digits,” a composition by Clark Terry (the trumpeter was part of the band on the ’57 record). As the melodic turns are navigated with confidence and flair, the track serves as another mini-showcase for Stephenson as a sparkplug of pure swing, a totally appropriate component in a Hodges tribute to be sure.
“18 Carrots for Rabbit” is a sweet curveball here, the song written by Gerry Mulligan and titled in tribute to Hodges (who was nicknamed Rabbit) as it appeared on the 1960 Verve LP Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges. Including it here allows Broder to switch to baritone for a spirited run-through. It leads into the standard “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,” which was recorded by Hodges for the Ellingtonia ’56 LP on the Norgren label, again featuring a mess of alumni from Duke’s band (and with Strayhorn back at bench).
The version on Front and Center is a bit smoother but with the core swing intact as Staaf gets another opportunity to shine. Broder returns to baritone for “Ballade for the Very Sad and Very Tired Lotus Eaters,” a Strayhorn composition from the 1956 Verve LP Duke’s in Bed (yet another pairing of Duke cohorts and Strayhorn on the keys) as the swing-era romanticism of Hodges’ version shifts into bolder Modern balladry in Broder and company’s interpretation.
Front and Center is an unabashedly straight-ahead affair, surely a smart way to doff the cap to Hodges, as the version of “Take the ‘A’ Train” resists stating the complete theme until the end of the tune (another nod to Duke’s in Bed, where Hodges and group employ the same tactic). But if not hanging out on a stylistic limb, the band consistently hits the right balance of reverence for the material and vibrant execution (and with subtle contempo injections).
“Just a Memory” is sourced from Side by Side, another Ellington-Hodges small group Verve album (overlapping a bit with Back to Back) and is a platform for the whole band. It suffices to say that Carter never falls back into mere accompaniment. The Hodges original “You Need to Rock” closes Side by Side and does the same on Johnny Hodges: Front and Center Vol. 1 as Broder and band deliver the bluesy swing without a hitch and whet the appetite for the follow-up promised in the title.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
