Not So Dukish (3 LPs on 2 CD)

Not So Dukish (3 LPs on 2 CD)

Johnny Hodges, the most distinctive and eloquent voice of the Duke Ellington boys, is the leader of these great 1958 sessions (without Duke), but with Billy Strayhorn, Duke's alter ego on piano, and featuring such greats as Roy Eldridge and Ben Webster. Primarily noted for his ballads, Hodges could blow soft as a whisper or loud as a trumpet, but never forfeits his major concerns, excitement, taste and restraint, delivering pure quality with moving simplicity. "The warmest saxophonist of them all" is a frequently quoted and fulsome description of Johnny Hodges that has never, to anyone's knowledge, been disputed. Note: This set also contains, as a bonus, three of the most consistently rewarding small Hodges units featuring Ben Webster recorded between 1952-1954 and roughly patterned after "Rabbit" Hodges' classic combos of the '40s.