ANDRE HODEIR: CLEAR THINKER AND EXEMPLARY DOER
Like in the previous broadcast, trombonist Billy Byers is again involved in a tremendously exciting project from the history of (French) jazz: Kenny Clarke’s Sextet plays André Hodeir. The recordings took place in October and November 1956, and Philips France released the LP as early as 1957. Because of America’s curiosity about how the lost son Kenny Clarke is doing in Paris, an American version is quickly released on the Epic label. Unfortunately, the title of the American record is a bit shorter and inaccurate: Kenny Clarke plays André Hodeir. Epic also comes up with a completely different design for the LP cover, hitting the nail on the head. In a black-and-white collage of cut-out letters and numbers, the twelve titles that André Hodeir arranged for this LP are visible.
The Epic cover remarkably illustrates how Hodeir writes his arrangements: first dismantling the original composition, throwing the parts into a box, shaking it hard, and then using the original features to create a new construction and unique sound colors. For this LP, Hodeir took three pieces by Thelonious Monk as his starting point and one piece each from Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Tadd Dameron, Benny Carter, and Milt Jackson. Additionally, the LP includes three compositions by Hodeir himself.
The sextet operates in four different formations, with Billy Byers and Kenny Clarke being the only two musicians playing in all the pieces. And the third constant factor is, of course, André Hodeir. Hodeir not only loves his studies but also enjoys being in the studio.
I belong to the generation that primarily knows André Hodeir from a few groundbreaking books and had little knowledge of his violin playing and arranging work. However, he was already active as a violinist in the Paris studios during World War II, under the pseudonym Claude Laurence: titles such as Brumes dans le soir, Monette, and Notre cher passé were recorded in 1942. He was also part of Joseph Reinhardt’s (brother of Django) et Son Ensemble. The CD Jazz sous l’occupation (#99 in the Jazz in Paris series (Gitanes)) includes four pieces from 1943: Douce Georgette (a version of Sweet Georgia Brown approved by German censorship under this name), J’attends l’amour, L’oeil noir, and Un peu de rêve.
In 1948, he appeared as a member of an eight-man group led by Kenny Clarke, who records four pieces on the French Swing label. Claude Laurence is the only soloist in Algerian Cynicism (a piece by Kenny Clarke). In Laurenzology (a composition by Hodeir), the robust tenor player Jean-Claude Fohrenbach, still under the influence of Coleman Hawkins, is also present alongside Laurence. In this coarse-grained Jazz at the Philharmonic-like ensemble, Claude Laurence manages to hold his own with his violin, despite the lingering influence of Hot Club de France’s flamboyant style. (The four pieces are included on the 4CD Properbox Kenny Clarke: Klook’s The Man).
After 1948, Claude Laurence hung up his violin and was active for decades as a composer/arranger, author of jazz and classical music books, and fiction writer for children and adults. In addition, he produced radio programs, gave domestic and international lectures, served on numerous juries, and was a professor at conservatories and universities, including Harvard. It should also be noted that Hodeir has written soundtracks for around fifty films.
André Hodeir, born on January 22, 1921, in Paris, was the offspring of a wealthy family. Despite his mother’s constant urging to take violin lessons, he decided to attend the Conservatory in Paris at the age of seventeen. Unfortunately, during his studies at the Conservatory, he had to spend a considerable amount of time recovering from tuberculosis in a sanatorium.
At the age of 26, Hodeir graduated from the Conservatory in 1947, where Olivier Messiaen taught him musical analysis. During the graduation ceremony, he received three first prizes for music history, harmony, and fugue/counterpoint. Although he was not considered a prodigy, Hodeir’s accomplishments were impressive.
Hodeir dedicated his first book, Le jazz cet inconnu (Editions France-Empire, Collection Harmoniques, Paris 1945), to a pathetically anti-bebop critic. While writing this book, he was heavily influenced by Hugues Panassié, to whom the book was dedicated.
Panassié, who was a passionate and tireless jazz advocate, defined “le vrai jazz” with a blunt and unscientific tone. He co-founded the Hot Club de France in 1932, an influential society of French jazz followers that, to my knowledge, is still active. Panassié also co-founded the Jazz Hot magazine with Charles Delaunay in 1935, wrote several books on jazz, brought Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet back to the recording studio after their careers had stalled entirely, and co-founded the Swing label with Delaunay.
After the German invasion, Panassié moved his residence from unsafe Paris to the secure provincial town of Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne), which was then subjected to the Vichy regime that collaborated with Hitler. Panassié was never a paragon of refinement and was often incomprehensible in his judgments about the qualities of the musicians under consideration. However, after the arrival of Bebop, which reached France in 1945 in the wake of the invincible American army, Panassié’s statements became increasingly apodictic. Furthermore, as a crazed jazz pope, he began to pronounce anathemas on his opponents more and more often.
From 1946, his tone became increasingly aggressive and uncompromising. He believed that the beboppers were undermining the essence of authentic jazz. Many transitional figures (musicians with style between swing and bebop) and bebop pioneers, critics, and radio program makers were threatened with hell and damnation in his Bulletin du Hot Club de France, which had degenerated into a polemic due to their “modernist deviations” and “outright criminal offenses.” He was able to rule like a kind of pope for about fifteen years, but in the last twenty-five years of his life, he operated as a pitiful reactionary sect leader.
Panassié undoubtedly contributed significantly to the acceptance of pre-war jazz. Still, he understood nothing of the relentless transformation process of jazz, which is also a characteristic feature of “le vrai jazz.” Similarly, André Hodeir’s books on my shelf showed no signs of use.
Between 1947 and 1951, André Hodeir operated as the editor-in-chief of Jazz Hot. Then, in 1948, he published his second book, Introduction à la musique de jazz (Editions Larousse), in which he was no longer hindered by the stifling dogmas of Panassié and his followers. Instead, Hodeir now looked at that dynamic, typically twentieth-century interracial phenomenon of jazz with unbiased and deep admiration, armed with excellent musicological knowledge.
As the chief editor of Jazz Hot, Hodeir was naturally bombarded with records, magazines, and books from all over the world, and in numerous articles and essays, he recorded his findings. In addition, he frequented the numerous jazz clubs that had sprung up in Paris shortly after the liberation. After four years of setting the course for Jazz Hot, Hodeir decided in 1951 to focus mainly on composing. He also had to concentrate on editing his third jazz book; the columns, reviews, and articles he had written for Jazz Hot had to be reworked into a visionary book. In 1954, the book was released: Hommes et Problèmes du Jazz, préface par Bernard Peiffer (Flammarion, Paris). Two years later, the American edition followed: Jazz: its evolution and essence (Grove Press, New York, 1956). The hardcover edition of Grove Press was followed by a Black Cat paperback, with colorful stylized brass instruments on the cover, which also featured a recommendation from Wilder Hobson, a critic at The Saturday Review: “By far the most impressive study of jazz music I have ever read.” Critic Martin Williams does it again on the cover of a reprint from 1980: “Jazz: its evolution and essence survives its first twenty-four years as one of the most compelling books ever written on the music.”
Some of my jazz friends had purchased or received the beautiful Black Cat paperback, but to be honest, André Hodeir’s very academic argumentation went over our heads when we were 14, 15, or 16 years old. We benefited much more from the Prisma pocket titled Jazz from New Orleans to Cool, written by the then-German jazz pope Joachim Ernst Berendt. The cultural world in the United States found all that European attention to the distinctly American art phenomenon of jazz flattering. So Berendt’s books could also count on a warm welcome in America.
Another book by Hodeir, Toward Jazz, published by Grove Press in 1962, could have been better read by me and my jazz buddies. This made Hodeir a closed book for many of us because we honestly didn’t know that he had also made several wildly interesting records on which his theoretical insights were translated into sounding results. Many of his LPs were only available in France and were not imported to the Netherlands.
Hodeir puts the lofty deed into academic words. The first jazz album featuring works by André Hodeir, Essais, was recorded in December 1954 on the Swing label. Le Jazz Groupe de Paris, a nine-man group featuring musicians such as Nat Peck (trombone), Bobby Jaspar (tenor sax), Sadi (vibraphone), and Pierre Michelot (bass), recorded six compositions by Hodeir under his direction. I have never come across this 10-inch LP in stores or at fairs. It wasn’t until 1999 that I got my hands on a CD containing the six Essais and two pieces of film music by Hodeir from 1949 and 1953: André Hodeir—The Vogue Sessions.
I have never had the next Hodeir LP in my hands: Le Jazz Groupe de Paris joue André Hodeir, on the Vega label (June and July 1956). Once again, Hodeir employs a nine-man group to record ten pieces: six by Hodeir himself and four by pianists Bud Powell, Duke Jordan, Thelonious Monk, and John Lewis. I have also never encountered the American version of this Vega record: André Hodeir and the Jazz Group of Paris; The Paris Scene (Savoy 12113).
The third album by André Hodeir, “American Jazzmen Play André Hodeir,” was recorded in March 1957 in Hackensack, NJ, by a dream band featuring Donald Byrd, Idrees Sulieman, and Frank Rehak on trumpet and trombone respectively, Hal McKusick, Bobby Jaspar, and Jay Cameron on saxophone, Eddie Costa on vibraphone and piano, George Duvivier on bass, and Bobby Donaldson on drums. On the stands were the six Essais from the first record in 1954, supplemented by three new pieces: “On a Riff,” “Esquisse II,” and “The Alphabet” featuring Annie Ross’s vocals. This Savoy LP (MG 12104) was occasionally found in European stores and fairs. Decades ago, I found a copy at Swingmaster in Groningen.
The fourth LP with Hodeir’s repertoire, “Jazz et Jazz,” was released in France on the Fontana label. In America, I once came across a Philips copy with a completely different cover than the original Fontana release. A total of seven pieces by André Hodeir were recorded by five different ensembles in 1960.
Billy Byers leads the way in the discovery trail.
The discography of Billy Byers serves as our guide in compiling the first series of broadcasts for the program “Dwarsliggers en Buitenbeentjes” (Mavericks and Misfits). In investigating his Parisian adventures, we came across the LP “Kenny Clarke’s Sextet Plays André Hodeir.”
We cover half of this LP in episode 7 of this program, while in episode 8 (March 25, 2023), you can hear the other six pieces.
I will first play the piece that inspired Hodeir, followed by the sextet version of Hodeir.
1. Jeru (Gerry Mulligan) on Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (Capitol, 1949)
2. Jeru, Hodeir version
3. Tahiti (Milt Jackson) on Milt Jackson (Blue Note, 1952)
4. Tahiti, Hodeir version
5. When Lights are Low (Benny Carter, 1936) on The Complete Recordings, Vol. 1 (Affinity)
6. When Lights are Low, the Hodeir version
7. ‘Round Midnight (Thelonious Monk) on (Blue Note, 1947)
8. ‘Round Midnight, Hodeir version
9. Swing Spring (Miles Davis) on Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (Prestige, 1954)
10. Swing Spring, Hodeir version
11. Blue Serge (Mercer Ellington) on Duke Ellington/The Complete RCA Victor Recordings 1927—1973, disc 11 # 12
12. Blue Serge, Hodeir version
13. ‘Round Midnight (Monk), Thelonious Monk solo, Paris June 1954 (Vogue)
The Kenny Clarke/André Hodeir LP can be found on the Fresh Sound CD titled “Kenny Clarke Plays the Arrangements of André Hodeir, Christian Chevallier, Pierre Michelot, and Francy Boland.” In a future broadcast, we will also pay attention to “Kenny Clarke Plays Pierre Michelot.” Not only is Billy Byers present again, but also Lucky Thompson and Ack van Rooyen.
