Johnny Dodds

Johnny Dodds ( April 12, 1892 in Waveland , Mississippi – August 8, 1940 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American jazz clarinetist of the New Orleans style .

Live and act

Dodds moved to New Orleans as a child , where he received clarinet lessons from Lorenzo Tio and played in Kid Ory's band from 1912 to 1919 , then with Fate Marable on his Paddlewheeler Orchestra and in 1920 with King Oliver , with whom he was in California in 1921 and 1923 went to Chicago (recordings with his Creole Jazz Band and with King Oliver's Jazz Band). He later replaced Alcide Nunez as clarinetist in the house band at Kelly's Stables , where he was also the band leader (the band included Freddie Keppard and his brother Baby Dodds ). Between 1925 and 1927 he belonged to the studio orchestraLouis Armstrong and His Hot Five or Hot Seven ( Hot Fives & Sevens ). He made other recordings, e.g. with Lil Hardin Armstrong ( Lill's Hot Shots ), the Dixieland Jug Blowers and Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers . With his Black Bottom Stompers , which included Armstrong, Roy Palmer , Barney Bigard , Earl Hines , Bud Scott and Baby Dodds, his only chart success came with the "Wild Man Blues" for Brunswick , which topped Billboard in October 1927 reached 30 .

Unlike many other Chicago musicians, he was not drawn to New York in the 1930s. He led and recorded his own bands (often with fellow trumpeter Natty Dominique and his brother) and ran a cab business with his brother during the Depression. Because of his poor health, there are few recordings from the 1930s (not until 1938, when he was already quite ill). In contrast to, for example, Jimmie Noone , who was active at the same time , he had a more emotional, blues-loaded style that worked well with Armstrong. Like many of the early jazz clarinetists, he played a clarinet with a German fingering system.

literature

• G Lambert Johnny Dodds , 1961
• Bernard Klatzko Johnny Dodds - Clarinet in Blue (in 78 Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 10)
• Klaus-Uwe Dürr The Recordings of Johnny Dodds , Hamburg/G., 2000

web links

• Dodds at Redhotjazz
• Johnny Dodds at AllMusic