Johnny Hodges biography

Profile

Johnny Hodges was born July 25, 1906 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He took up the soprano saxophone at 14. He worked in Boston and New York during the mid-1920s, playing in bands led by Lloyd Scott, Chick Webb, Bobby Sawyer, Luckey Roberts, and Bechet. He joined Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1928 and was the band's most-featured soloist for the next four decades. In 1951 he formed his own combo.