DUKE ELLINGTON - ISFAHAN - played by Johnny Hodges 

@ Al Biondi This performance is before my time, but I recognise Johnny Hodges as my Sax HERO. To have been present at a live concert such as this must have been truly memorable.

@@SaxJockey it is something i'll never forget

Thank you.

expressionist, no. Expressive, yes.

You dig.

Those guys are so chill. That tempo is amazing. Johnny just looks back a bit, and bam! right on the money. But, you know, no big deal. Duke is so funny, he's totally a pro music stand. Harry Carney is the best, he knows just when to come out.

Just One of the Greats !

YOU SHOULD FIND OUT -- Hodges was a giant, and so indeed was Harry Carney, whose baritone sax can be heard: this is a man you hardly appreciate if you don't have enough interest to check him up. as for "he's so big" actually that was a joke -- Hodges was a notoriously poor sight reader and whatever the joke was it was expressed by Duke holding up the sheet music, as I remember from having seen them around the time this was filmed...

are listeners aware that Hodges was a terrible music reader, and that duke is most likely doing this out of either jest or a tease?

@@MichaelBB They are now, thanks to Robert Calder.

@@muebrigetta Paul Gonsalves was huge too, the lead tenor player. Really ahead of his time improvisation wise; was a huge inspiration to Coltrane.

☺

He went pass the emotional expression possible by a vocalist*

As my saxophone teacher used to say, Johnny Hodges taught the world what the alto saxophone was supposed to sound like!

I feel like quibbling with you but... I'll just shut up and join the audience with you for another listen.

Coleman Hawkins, too.

@@erickborling1302 I think you speak for any listener when you say (between the lines) that he IS the zenith of emotional expression. 😄Thank you for posting this. Watching Duke Ellington hold his music rips your heart open! And the way the camera reveals what he's doing makes this a 3-act epic.

Daniel Gaynor Thank you!

Ned McDigital In a very serene way, and in a deeper sense of the word, Strayhorn and Ellington heard each other; their collaboration stretches one beyond the senses. Like your additional thoughts about the sphere. Don't know what mentioning a drug addiction is supposed to do.

Exactly! He is a study in Serenity and Royalty. Mesmerizing!

I would agree with you. I was wondering what kind of dynamic was going on there that Hodges needed someone to hold the music for him? And most times he wasn't looking at it, LOL!

Agreed.

@@pamelatrent9674 Hard to Know. It could be that Stray composed it really recently and he had to learn in for the show and he felt a bit more comfortable having a chart. Some players like having a chart. Look at Svatisloslav Richter - he liked having the music in front of him at some point in his life. Lots of Duke's music is like classical and that the parts are written down in the head- unlike someone Like Basie.

The melody is really chromatic. It was written in '63, so it was probably new, and the chart was just insurance.

May I add, what a piece of the rare beauties in jazz performance. We can all take heart, with the challenge of hearing this high class, to keep trying to get out more of our souls, more honesty, truth, perception, beauty, resolution...

Ohhhhh....to be able to bend notes like that and stay in tune!

"double embouchure"??? And also play out the side of his mouth. Johnny Hodges, oh how great.

@@1rocknroy Johnny was playing with double embouchure to get excellent control of the airstream. Double embouchure means bending both lower and upper lip above teeth, to that the teeth never touch the reed nor the mouthpiece.

+Vera Crews Jazz, in the soiled vernacular of a darker time, meant "fuck". As is does now and forever. But I salute you. Vale!

Vera Crews ???? who cares !! really ...

Gregory Lyons INCORRECT! And also the least important factoid ever.

That is almost certainly not true. Where did you get that info from?

@@jazzygiraffe8589 the legendary Sidney Bechet was Hodges teacher when hodges was young .

@@brenttrading2363 I know that, but it wasn't until Hodges was playing in Bechet's band in New York - shortly before joining the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and at that time he was already and accomplished player - that Bechet taught Hodges. Before that he had only met him once in Boston and been "showin some tricks", as Hodges said in an interview, if I recall correctly. He surely would have mentioned this kind of advice in the interview. More importantly though, I play the saxophone myself, and developing your embochoure takes years of daily practice. Even being able to play all the notes in tune will take ages. So it is pretty much impossible, irregardless of how talented you are, to "perfect every way a note can be played" within a matter of days. Don't get me wrong, I like your story. But it has little to nothing to do with reality since Hodges unique and stylistic sound came from things like listening to Clarence Williams Blue five (which included Sidney Bechet) , travelling to New York to attend jam sessions, and, of course, lots of practice.

@@brenttrading2363you just make up stories on the fly or?😂

mike factor this is how I sex should sound...

I'm thinking the same thing. at one point, Duke kinda pouts his lips. Hodges rarely looks at the score. It was probably something someone else wanted. Beautiful piec e though. Just downloaded it from iTunes.

that's why I think it was dukes way of embarrassing Hodges. It wouldn't of been the first time. Does anybody know why for sure ? Charley Young ?

@@ber334 Didn't he play the solo on Far East Suite?

@Ricky No, but Curt at Saxsolos.com will transcribe it for you.

Some people's knowledge of tempo ,Harmony and improvisation just leaves room for learning

Is it on Ytube, Mort ?

Oh HELL NO! (chuckle). Give it a shot. Wouldn't this particular solo force you to choose either a too-high or too-low tessitura on the tenor?

So much heroin!

So... yeah I too find it puzzling when two ...apparent greats have no affinity/love for each other. That's a mystery worth contemplating.