Liner Notes by Willard Jenkins

Saxophonist Owen Broder apparently recognized more than a minute ago that versatility would be a potent calling card for a modern musician making his mark on 21st century music.  This is the resourceful saxophonist-composer’s second recording project as a leader. His 2018 Heritage – which was subsequently highly favored by the NPR year-end jazz poll – explored American legacy songs from a jazz perspective. His co-led quintet with saxophonist Ethan Helm, the puckishly named Cowboys & Frenchmen, has thus far released three albums and yielded tours and competition prizes. Owen Broder is also a composer, recognized in 2018 with the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. Subsequently in 2020, he was commissioned by the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers, among his other commissions. He grew up in Jacksonville, FL and studied at the Eastman School of Music.

When he’s not writing, playing his saxophones – he’s fluent in the four majors: soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones – bandleading or recording, armed with his MM from Manhattan School of Music he currently teaches Jazz Theory and Jazz Arranging at Portland State University. And that latter skill, the art of arranging, is on full display with this sumptuous serving of the artistry of the illustrious alto saxophonist, Johnny Hodges, he of the distinctive tone that served the band so well during his decades on the road as one of the signature voices in the Duke Ellington Orchestra.   

“Hodges was one of my first inspirations on the saxophone,” Broder recounts his formative years, “and I continue to be inspired by his sound and melodic approach to improvising. As a saxophonist, I was interested in exploring Hodges’ music beyond his position in Ellington’s band, and was excited to discover record after record he made as a bandleader on which we can hear him stretch more as an improviser.”

The saxman set out with a goal of highlighting Hodges from both his Ellington and beyond-Duke perspectives. Broder and company meticulously represent the Johnny Hodges’ oeuvre on this recording by not only sculpting new arrangements for the evergreens “Take the A Train”, and “Royal Garden Blues”, but also through such gems as Hodges’ tongue-in-cheek title “Ballade for the Very Sad and Very Tired Lotus Eaters”. The latter is a beautiful ballad, full of wistful longing with an enchanting bridge, which Broder enthusiastically details as “one of the most beautiful sets of changes I’ve ever heard.” This selection is one of this album’s two baritone sax features for Broder.

Thankfully these players never fall victim to gratuitous burnout syndrome; their attitude throughout remains relaxed and high-spirited in service to the swinging nature of this repertoire. “The music of Hodges: Front and Center, Vol. 1 draws on different musical traditions than my other projects,” Broder asserts, “and gave me the opportunity to approach a new group of collaborators who I’ve long admired. Each of the players in this band got me excited to hear their fresh approach to this retrospective concept.”

The album opens with Clarence and Spencer Williams’ “Royal Garden Blues,” which Broder plucked from the Ellington/Hodges small band co-led date Back to Back, circa 1959.  The 60th anniversary of that recording was part of the compulsion for this project’s germination, which commenced in 2019. Mulherkar’s trumpet jauntily states the theme, later delivering a marvelous muted solo. This track exemplifies the overall sense that the attitude of these 21st century musicians is correct; they’re not just playing these tunes, but investing in their true spirit.

“Viscount”, a collaboration between Hodges and Mercer Ellington, was inspired by trumpet master Clark Terry’s cup muted take on the 1957 Hodges album The Big Sound. Once again it exemplifies Hodges’ optimistic pen, displaying some nice counterpoint between Broder and Mulherkar in its relaxed tempo essay. Barry Stephenson takes a well-deserved bass break following Broder’s solo and the horns don’t leave the bassist hanging, delivering a nice riff accompaniment. 

Another piece from off the Ellington beaten path is “18 Carrots for Rabbit,” a piece Gerry Mulligan wrote for his partnership with Hodges on the album Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges, which Broder addresses on his bari sax in a direct nod to Mulligan. Trumpeter Riley Mulherkar takes the Hodges role in the ensemble to facilitate Broder’s switch to the big horn, where he displays his charming tone. Fred Ahlert and Joe Young’s “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,” inspired by vocalist Madeleine Peyroux’s version, yields a perceptive solo by pianist Carmen Staaf that finds the horns riffing in compliment.    

“Digits” is a gem from the book of longtime Ellingtonian Clark Terry, one of the music’s great humorists. Befitting Terry’s boundless wit, Broder and company supply what can only be dubbed a laughing in rhythm arrangement, in the true manner of the composer.   

Billy Strayhorn’s classic “Take the A Train” is another witty arrangement, replete with some tasteful brush work by drummer Bryan Carter. Broder’s saxophone solo is compact and pithy, and the complete theme is never stated until the close. “Hodges reimagined the Ellington staple with a new melody during the A sections,” Broder details. “His arrangement doesn’t present the primary recognizable theme until the very end.”   

On Ray Henderson’s “Just a Memory” Mulherker broadens his tone nicely to embrace this ageless tune. “The song form is highly unusual,” says Owen, “breaking from the tradition of 8-bar phrase lengths. Each A section is an 11-bar phrase, made up of one 5 and one 6 bar phrase. Compared with the common 32-bar forms often heard in jazz music, this form has an additional 11 bars. Henderson was able to make these extended phrase lengths feel organic, giving the melody some extra space to breathe.”    

“You Need to Rock” closes the proceedings with some appropriately house rockin’ blues – good to the last fade as a “high energy tune with a shuffle groove,” Broder verifies. “Hodges composed this tune without a melody as much as a collection of riffs that shape the intensity with each new idea. It evolves into an exciting vehicle for the soloist over more riffing background figures. For us, it was a great opportunity to open things up and have fun over a blues that felt characteristically Hodges”.

It’s refreshing that this project comes from a representative of a generation of saxophonists whose alto touchstone is more often one of the modern jazz founders, Charlie “Yardbird” Parker. The prospects of a program of 21st century updates and re-imaginings of music contributed by one of the pre-bop greats – one who made his major bones in a big band context – is indeed refreshing. Owen Broder and company deliver on a program dedicated to far more than Johnny Hodges’ wealth of contributions to the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Broder has certainly done the research and delivers on an album that is equal parts a contemporary perspective on Johnny Hodges and a convivial, affectionate tribute to the legendary Rabbit’s place in the saxophone pantheon.