Hodges leads, Strayhorn takes the piano chair
New York, April 5, 1958: Johnny Hodges records the nine selections for Blues A-Plenty. Billy Strayhorn plays piano, Jimmy Woode bass and Sam Woodyard drums. Roy Eldridge, Vic Dickenson and Ben Webster join them on five tracks, with Norman Granz producing. The personnel already suggest the album’s setting: musicians from the Ellington circle meet other distinctive swing voices, with Hodges’s alto saxophone at the centre.
Duke Ellington does not play on the record. That makes the arrangement especially interesting. Strayhorn occupies the piano chair, and Hodges builds a programme around his own compositions and selected standards. Listeners who mainly know him as an orchestral soloist can follow the individual participants within a smaller ensemble.
Moving between quartet and septet
The session discography identifies two line-ups. “I Didn’t Know About You”, “Gone With The Wind”, “Don’t Take Your Love From Me” and “Satin Doll” feature the quartet. On “Cool Your Motor”, “Honey Hill”, “Blues-A-Plenty”, “Saturday Afternoon Blues” and “Reeling And Rocking”, trumpet, trombone and tenor saxophone expand the group to seven players.
That alternation offers a natural route through the album. Follow how the setting for the alto changes when the additional horns arrive, then return to the smaller group. Our personnel list preserves the documented assignments. All seven names belong to the album, but they should not all be credited on every selection.
Blues and connections to the orchestra
Five compositions are by Hodges. The programme also includes Ellington’s “I Didn’t Know About You”, with lyricist Bob Russell, and “Satin Doll”. The connection to the orchestra remains present without requiring its full scale. “Reeling And Rocking” provides the extended conclusion to side two, an invitation to stay with the record through its final selection.
On another play, try using Strayhorn’s piano as a guide. Then shift attention to Woode and Woodyard. A small group does not make musical relationships simple, but it can make them easier to follow. That is part of the attraction of an album whose title promises the blues while its personnel bring a much wider collection of musical associations.
Bernie Grundman and this Verve reissue
The 2024 Verve Acoustic Sounds Series edition is a single 180-gram stereo LP at 33⅓ RPM. Mastering is credited to Bernie Grundman, with pressing at Quality Record Pressings and a Stoughton tip-on gatefold. The label identifies the original analogue tapes as the source.
One point matters for collectors: the documented runouts and the Discogs edition entry refer back to the earlier Classic Records cut from 1995. We therefore do not describe this release as a newly created 2024 cut. It presents the original nine-track programme in carefully specified packaging, while keeping the 1958 session and the subsequent reissue history clearly distinguished.
You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and dispatch from Hilden.
Also on SACD: Blues A-Plenty
More by Johnny Hodges: Johnny Hodges With Billy Strayhorn
Series: Verve – all 34 records: voices, organ and bossa nova
Musicians
Participants and documented credit status. Track references correspond to the tracklist.
- Johnny Hodgesalto saxophoneParticipation: Album personnel
- Roy EldridgetrumpetParticipation: A2, A4, A5, B1, B3
- Vic DickensontromboneParticipation: A2, A4, A5, B1, B3
- Ben Webstertenor saxophoneParticipation: A2, A4, A5, B1, B3
- Billy StrayhornpianoParticipation: Album personnel
- Jimmy WoodebassParticipation: Album personnel
- Sam WoodyarddrumsParticipation: Album personnel
Produced by Norman Granz. Quartet on A1, A3, A6, B2; septet on A2, A4, A5, B1, B3, according to the session discography. Published durations for B3 differ; no unverified duration is promised.
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