Stride Right - Johnny Hodges & Earl "Fatha" Hines

 

C Jam Blues

Stride Right

Johnny Hodges & Earl "Fatha" Hines

Produced by Creed Taylor

Cover Design: Acy Lehman

Cover Photo: Lee Friedlander

Engineer: Rude Van Gelder

Director Of Engineering: Val Valentin

Recorded January 14, 1966 at Rudy Van Gelders

Verve Records V-8647

Johnny Hodges - Alto Sax

Earl Hines - Organ and Piano

Kenny Burrell - Guitar

Richard Davis - Bass

Joe Marschall - Drums

From the back cover: Johnny Hodges and Earl Hines stride right through the lengthening history of jazz like giants. Very early in their brilliant careers, they were established as influential stylists. Alto saxophonists everywhere tried to sound like Hodges and piano players like Hines, but these two were naturally gifted intuitive whose forms of expression involved skills and meaning that could only be approximated in imitation. In the course of time, most of the imitators moved on to other models, but the originals continued to be themselves – very much themselves.

In each case, the style was the man. The man did not stand still, nor did he change. Maybe he put on different clothes as the Colgate altered – Earl Hines can Inba will play you a very pretty bossa nova, and Johnny Hodges will accommodate you over as funky a back beat as anyone could desire – but the man and his animus remained essentially the same.

Astonishingly, neither has tried. Running deep, deep, their veins of invention seem inexhaustible, and the chances and encounters of everyday life provide their inspiration. Their responses, of, in other words, their musical reflexes, are quick and sure, for they are true professionals in the jazz art of improvisation and variation. They know how, and they do it easily, without fuss, so that the listener is not always fully aware of what magic has been wrought before him.

There was not much need for talk when they came together in the studio. They knew each other's capabilities and understood one another. "Johnny and I have been friends a long time," Hines explained simply. The group's instrumentation necessitated no complicated routines, and there would normally be no second take unless someone goofed. An almost unconscious emphasis on spontaneity was allowed to develop as the session progressed, as Hodges surprised Hines on Hines territory, and vice versa. – Stanley Dance

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