Tracks Unwrapped
Jeep's Blues
Exploring the stories behind the music
Johnny Hodges
From 1936, Ellington began to make recordings of smaller groups (sextets, octets, and nonets) drawn from his orchestra of fifteen. He composed pieces that would feature one of the instrumentalists, such as Clarinet Lament for Barney Bigard, Trumpet in Spades for Rex Stewart, Echoes of Harlem for Cootie Williams and Jeep’s Blues for alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges.
Johnny Hodges went by two nicknames – ‘Rabbit’ and ‘Jeep’. It was in his teens that he was first called ‘Rabbit’. He was given the name by Harry Carney because of his rabbit-like nibbling on lettuce and tomato sandwiches, although others thought that it was because he could outrun the truant officers. Saxophonist Johnny Griffin said it was because "he looked like a rabbit, no expression on his face while he's playing all this beautiful music.”
It is said that the nickname 'Jeep' was given to Hodges by Ellington's saxophonist Otto Hardwick(e) after a character in the "Popeye" strip cartoon. Hardwick also named Billy Strayhorn "Swee 'Pea" from the same cartoon series.
Here is Duke Ellington's Orchestra playing Jeep's Blues in 1956:
Eugene The Jeep
Eugene the Jeep is a strange character, an animal with magical abilities. He first appeared in the Popeye cartoons in 1936.
"Wha's a Jeep?" - Popeye asks Professor Brainstine what exactly a Jeep is. Barinstine reples: “A Jeep is an animal living in a three dimensional world - in this case our world - but really belonging to a fourth dimensional world. Here's what happened. A number of Jeep life cells were somehow forced through the dimensional barrier into our world. They combined at a favorable time with free life cells of the African Hooey Hound. The electrical vibrations of the Hooey Hound cell and the foreign cell were the same. They were kindred cells. In fact, all things are, to some extent, relative, whether they be of this or some other world, now you see. The extremely favorable conditions of germination in Africa caused a fusion of these life cells. So the uniting of kindred cells caused a transmutation. The result, a mysterious strange animal.” When asked if he had any further questions, Popeye, totally unenlightened by this explanation, repeated “Wha’s a Jeep?” In The Jeep (1938), Popeye presents the animal to Olive Oyl and Swee‘ Pea with the explanation, "The Jeep's a magical dog and can disappear and things." In Popeye Presents Eugene the Jeep (1940), it is Popeye who receives the creature from Olive, in a box via a special delivery man, and with the premise that he had never seen the creature before: "Well, blow me down! A baby puppy!"
Here is a brief introduction:
Alto saxophonist John Cornelius Hodges joined the Ellington band in 1928. He had already been playing with Sidney Bechet and Chick Webb, and it was Barney Bigard who recommended him to Duke when the bandleader wanted to extend his orchestra. His family had moved from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Boston where Johnny grew up with Harry Carney, Charlie Holmes and Howard E. Johnson. Having started out on drums and piano (his mother, Katie, was a good pianist), he switched to soprano saxophone in his teens when he met Sidney Bechet.
The story goes that ‘When Hodges was fourteen, he saw Sidney Bechet play in Jimmy Cooper's Black and White Revue in a Boston burlesque hall. Hodges's sister got to know Bechet, which gave him the inspiration to introduce himself and play My Honey's Lovin Arms for Bechet. Bechet was impressed with his skill and encouraged him to keep on playing. Hodges built a name for himself in the Boston area before moving to New York in 1924.’
In an interview with Downbeat magazine in 1962, Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney spoke of their time together:
"Johnny and I lived a few doors apart," Carney said recently. "We used to get together and listen to records. And, of course, I've always been a great admirer of Johnny. I was trying to play alto in the same vein, and I stuck as close to him as he would allow me. It did me an awful lot of good."
Carney, a large man, sat quietly on the edge of a hotel-room bed. Hodges, a small man, sprawled on the bed, watching the flickering picture of a silent television set. He chuckled occasionally. It was difficult to tell if he was amused by the TV show or by Carney's reminiscences of far-away days.
Carney continued: "Hodges was in New York before I came there. He was instrumental in getting me my first job in New York. That was in 1927. He was with Chick Webb at the Savoy Ballroom. They were having what they called a Masquerade Ball Night, an all-day, all-night affair. Instead of the regular two bands playing, there were four bands. Johnny got me a job in one of the relief bands. In the band was a fellow, Henry Saytoe, who had a job coming up in a couple of weeks at the Bamboo Inn, a Chinese-American restaurant. I got permission from my folks to stay, and I took that job. I was 17."
Hodges, who speaks much the same way he plays, stirred when asked how he joined the band. "I'd been with Chick Webb," he said, "You see, Duke started Chick, gave Chick his first band. Duke was working at the Kentucky Club, six pieces. Another club opened up on 50th Street and Seventh Ave. I don't remember the name of it. But I wanted a band just like Duke's. So he asked me to have a band, and I didn't want any part of having a band. He asked Chick. (Chick would stand on a corner and sing whole arrangements.) We got together with six pieces and tried to make it sound like Duke. We did pretty good until we had had a fire. During that time fire was common in clubs. We went up to the Savoy for two weeks. Stayed about six months. I left and started gigging with a fellow named Luckey Roberts. The bread was good. Thought it would last forever. So I kept gigging and gigging and gigging. Meanwhile, Otto Hardwicke [who was playing alto with Ellington] had an accident, went through the windshield of a taxicab. Had his face all cut up, and I had to go to work for him. Duke offered me a job. I still wouldn't take the job, kept putting it off and putting it off. Everybody was trying to talk me into taking it. So I finally took it. And here I am."
Johnny Hodges was one of the Ellington musicians who were featured in Benny Goodman’s famous 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall. Goodman was impressed by the man, saying he thought he was "by far the greatest man on alto sax that I ever heard." Charlie Parker called him ‘the Lily Pons of his instrument’. Lily Pons was a popular American operatic soprano and actress of the day who made three films for RKO and made numerous appearances on television and with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She was also a fashion icon. Johnny Hodges was often very smartly turned out.
Here is Lily Pons singing The Blue Danube (with some operatic scat singing?) in a clip from the movie That Girl From Paris accompanied by McClean's Wildcats:
Jeep’s Blues is just one of the tunes that features Hodges in the Ellington bands. There were two pieces that particularly contrasted Hodges playing, the slow tempo of Jeep’s Blues and the swinging Jeep Is Jumping. Other features written for Johnny Hodges by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn include the ballads Passion Flower and Isfahan (from the Far East Suite - there is a video of Johnny Hodges soloing on the number here).
As Helen Oakley Dance said in her liner notes for the 1968 LP compilation of the 1938 and '39 sessions (she also supervised some of these recordings), "The small-band sound, the band-within-a-band, had captivated popular imagination, and Johnny Hodges's talents dominated the new trend." This track brought much admiration for the beautiful blues playing of Hodges. "Jeep's Blues" became a much-played tune."
Here is a more recent version of Jeep's Blues played by the Sant Andreu Jazz Band with Eva Fernandez and Dick Oatts taking the saxophone solos:
In 2013, the movie American Hustle was released starring Amy Adams and Christian Bale as two con artists who are forced by an FBI agent to set up an elaborate sting operation on corrupt politicians, including the mayor of Camden, New Jersey. There is a scene in which Christian Bale and Amy Adams meet and he takes her to listen to an album where he plays Duke Ellington's Jeep's Blues. 'Who starts a song like that?' asks Bale. Here is the scene:
In an article no longer online, author Dean Alger answers: "The track opens with Johnny blowing the lovely and memorable theme in sublime bluesy style, including some wailing high notes on soprano sax that further deepen the impassioned playing. The small band offers perfect support, especially with full "chorus" voicings on further versions of the theme. Cootie Williams blows some searing, growling trumpet work with the mute, adding greatly to the blues feel and aesthetic texture. And Jeep's friend from his early Boston years, Harry Carney, offers a fine higher-range baritone sax break for another dimension to the musical mosaic."
In this brief clip, American Hustle director David O. Russell talks about how Duke Ellington's Jeep's Blues was used to set a mood for the relationship between Amy Adam's and Christian Bale's characters:
Johnny Hodges left the Ellington orchestra in 1951, started up his own band and made a number of recordings, but by 1955, he was back with Ellington and remained there for the rest of his life. He died from a heart attack on 11th May 1970 while visiting his dentist. Ellington was working on his New Orleans Suite at the time and Johnny’s last recordings are featured on 5 tracks on the recording which was only half-finished when he died. Johnny Hodges was supposed to record his first soprano solo in nearly 30 years on Portrait of Sidney Bechet, but he passed away before the second session, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves took Hodges' place as the soloist.
At the Essentially Ellington Competition in 2014, Lucas Bere from the Rio Americano High School in California took the solo on Jeep's Blues. The competition is an annual event run by Jazz At The Lincoln Centre for American High School bands "A free program, Essentially Ellington aims to elevate musicianship, broaden perspectives and inspire performance.' This video shows the talent and enjoyment of the young musicians involved:
Duke Ellington once said: “Johnny Hodges has complete independence of expression. He says what he wants to say on the horn…in his language, from his perspective.”