Jazz album review: Johnny Hodges and his Orchestra

JOHNNY HODGES AND HIS ORCHESTRA

Used To Be Duke

****

Verve 0602517967151, £9.78

Don't trade in your 1991 CD release of this classic album by the magnificent alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges: it's got three more tracks than this latest reissue.

Recorded in 1954, Used To Be Duke finds the magisterial Hodges in terrific form, accompanied by a star-studded line-up dominated by musicians – among them John Coltrane – from the band he set up when he left Ellington's outfit, as well as a pair of guests from the Ellington orchestra of the day. The music may be a mixture of standards and bluesy originals, but the feel is sublimely Ellingtonian.

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