Cashbox : 12/16/1967

Alto saxist Johnny Hodges performs a set of ten jazz sessions with three different big bands. Some of the musicians are past or present members of the Ellington band; all are jazz musicians of the highest caliber, such as Tiny Grimes, Ray Nance, and Roy Eldridge. Among the groovy efforts are C-Jam Blues, Wild Onions, and The Nearness of You. Jazz aficionados should go for the album in a big way.

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Asbury Park Press
Don Lass : 03/02/1968

Back in the late ’30s and early ’40s the premier jazz players of the day often assembled in recording studios for informal sessions that have since become jazz classics. Hodges was on a good many of these, and some of his performances (On the Sunny Side of the Street with Lionel Hampton and his own Passion Flower are good examples) are rated among the best in jazz history. For this collection, recorded last year, producer Brad McCuen reached into the past for the “all star” device and his product achieves the spontaneity and originality of its vintage predecessors. The common element, of course, is alto saxophonist Hodges, a brilliant soloist with one of the truly distinctive styles in jazz. Surrounding him are three groups of nine members each, all among the premier performers in jazz, players like trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Ray Nance, guitarist Tiny Grimes, trombonist Lawrence Brown, baritone saxist Harry Carney, and clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton. The selections range from a typical Hodges riff, Take ’em Off, Take ’em Off, to the vintage romantic ballad The Very Thought of You, with a number of originals, the old jam standard C Jam Blues, and another standard in The Nearness of You in between. On each, the solos stand out with Hodges, Brown, Eldridge, and trombonist Buster Cooper, a relative newcomer, leading the way. It’s a good, solid session that will please Hodges fans and those who remember the “good old days” of jazz.

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Boston Herald Traveler
George Forsythe : 01/21/1968

Big band music always is refreshing and when Johnny Hodges heads the band, with members of the Ellington organization, it is doubly refreshing.

The RCA album Johnny Hodges Triple Play where he leads three separate all-star bands whose members sound like a who’s who in jazz.

There are the names of Ray Nance, Cat Anderson, Roy Eldridge, Nat Pierce, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, Les Spann, Milt Hinton and others.

Side one opens and closes with a wild song title Take ‘Em Off, and sandwiched in between are The Very Thought of You, Sir John, and the classic C-Jam Blues. Other numbers are Wild Onions, The Nearness of You, Fur Piece, and On the Way Up. As usual, some of the titles are a bit out and probably are known only to the jazz fans, but what’s in a name. The music is great.

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Dayton Daily News
B.W. Wullkotte : 01/07/1968

Forty years of flawless horn are encased in this latest release by Johnny Hodges. Sinuous phrasing is still the hallmark of this artist, yet John can bite ’em off with the best of alto men.

In this era of the short, chopped-note passages filled with meaningless statements here’s a man who weaves a mosaic of sound utilizing the Duke Ellington big band or the three groups heard on this album. Three different small bands at three different recording sessions make up this hour of fine music.

Note some of the sidemen: Harry Carney, Benny Powell, Roy Eldridge, Nat Pierce, Cat Anderson, Jimmy Hamilton, Lawrence Brown, Jimmy Jones, Ray Nance, Paul Gonsalves, Hank Jones, and others. I’m sure you’ll notice that many of these are Ellington sidemen but there are several of the more contemporary jazz men in this session, too.

Two gorgeous ballads, The Very Thought of You and The Nearness of You, are typical Hodges… moody in an urbane way. Eight originals, more of the up-tempo, round out the platter.

Sidelight: Ray Nance, who usually plays jazz trumpet or hot violin is heard on cornet of all things! Tiny Grimes offers some deft four-string guitar on five choruses of Tiny Bit of Blues.

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Hackensack Record
Allen Macaulay : 01/20/1968

It isn’t often that Johnny Hodges takes a step backward, but he does it on his new RCA Victor release, Triple Play. The title refers to three separate studio bands he heads on this LP, and the effect is predictably uneven. There are some good cuts, like C-Jam Blues, but the others just aren’t up to he Hodges standard.

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Indianapolis News
Charles McKinney : 01/11/1968

Johnny Hodges, surely one of jazz’ greatest alto saxophone players, is another espouser of the importance of a full band as compared with a single performer. His latest album, Triple Play, has him playing with three – that’s right – three different bands.

The album presents the fruits of three different sessions, during each of which Hodges played with an entirely different band. The result is that in this album Hodges is heard with three different trumpet players, three different trombonists, three different pianists, three different guitarists, three different bassists, three different drummers and three different reed specialists.

Hodges doesn’t dominate the selections, just as Hampton didn’t in the selections from the Newport festival. Members of these three bands contribute their respective musical notes and interpretations as part of the overall effect, just as Hampton’s band members did.

There are rollicking jazz, big band sounds (Take ’em Off, Take ’em Off, Parts I and II), bluesy numbers (The Very Thought of You) which features a fine solo by Hodges’ band, The Nearness of You, and hardcore jazz renditions like the jamming C-Jam Blues.

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Liner Notes by Frank Challis

A triple play doesn’t happen often in baseball, but when it does it’s a feat to remember long after the cheering dies. The same can be said for this album by Johnny Hodges, especially since it is the first triple play that has been recorded under his name in the course of a long and brilliant career.

To be precise, it presents the fruits of three different sessions. There is not, to be sure, anything unusual about that, except that the band with which Johnny plays is of an entirely different composition on each session. So, in one album you can hear him with three different trumpet players, three different trombonists, three different bassists and three different drummers, not to mention three different reed specialists and a vibist. Some of these musicians are past or present members of the Ellington band, some have played with Johnny on record dates before, and others are new associates, but all are jazz musicians of the highest caliber.

To bring them together to play in a kind of organized jam session, to maintain a relaxed and congenial atmosphere, and to produce jazz of the quality found here, is a musical triple play that should command respect. Also, the variety of of expression should be all the more welcome at a time where too many albums are built on the ridiculous premise that the listener wants to hear only one instrumental soloist throughout. If Johnny’s is the dominant personality here, it is not merely because he is the one common element, but primarily because of his unexampled artistic ability.

As always, he has come up with some catchy new numbers. Take ’em Off, Take ’em Off, which opens and closes the first side (there’s a new twist for you!), swings like all jazz music should. The first segment introduces guitarist Tiny Grimes who, after recording with almost everybody who mattered in the 1940s – Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday and Art Tatum, for example – has been in the recording studios shamefully seldom during the last decade. Trombonist Buster Cooper makes an extroverted statement before the leader steps in. The second segment brings the Ellington sound of Ray Nance‘s cornet and plunger mute back where they belong. Both he and Paul Gonsalves, the following soloist, get some spontaneous vocal encouragement from Buster Cooper.

Ballad performances provide a change of mood on each side, but they differ markedly from one another. The Very Thought of You is all silk and romance, the inimitable Hodges playing being sensitively accompanied by a quintet that includes Bill Berry on vibes. That’s right, on vibes. Better known as a trumpet player, Bill reveals a talent few members of the public would have suspected. The Nearness of You is a vehicle for Buster Cooper’s robust trombone, and he very defiantly delineates the difference between the “you” that is close and realistic and the “you” that is distant and imagined.

C-Jam Blues has been one of the most popular numbers for jamming ever since it was written, and this version has a string of striking improvised solos by Benny Powell (not on his usual bass trombone, but on the tenor model of the instrument), Billy Butler, Harry Carney, Roy Eldridge and Johnny. Like Grimes, Butler is a skilled guitarist of whom all too little has been heard in recent years. The same group and the same soloists make a little masterpiece of Fur Piece, the Hodges composition that opens Side Two. Here it is Roy Eldridge’s turn to demonstrate command of the plunger mute. The majesty of Harry Carney’s tone is well recorded here; Butler reappears with easy authority; Powell gets low down, and Johnny enters dancing with well-spaced, well-timed notes. The title? Well, at this time the composer was pondering on which hat to take on the annual Ellington tour of Europe, then due to begin in a few days. Anticipating chilly temperatures, he decided on one of seal fur he bought in Stockholm the previous year.

His penchant for the blues is further emphasized on Sir John and A Tiny Bit of Blues, where all the other horns are tacet. On the second title, Tiny Grimes plays five appealing choruses (one more than scheduled) on his four-string guitar before Johnny enters to deliver his four with assurance and rare feeling. In regard to the bass rhythms, it is interesting to note that this was recorded the day before Sir John.

Wild Onions and On the Way Up were both written and arranged by Cat Anderson. He is heard on the former, first with Harmon mute and then – more typically – wide open in the performance’s roaring climax. Choruses by Jimmy Hamilton, Les Spann, Lawrence Brown and Johnny add to the wild flavor of up-tempo excitement. On the Way Up, in contrast, is a choice piece of gospelry on which all concerned obey their leader’s request to “Put the church in there!” Jimmy Jones shows his versatility in an extremely appropriate piano introduction and, after Johnny and Lawrence Brown have had their say, Cat Anderson preaches a caustic sermon with plunger mute. So here on one record you can compare how Cat, Ray Nance and Roy Eldridge use that handy plumber’s tool.

Many people will be confirmed in the belief that three is a lucky number after hearing this number. And almost anyone who loves jazz will be glad he was around for Johnny Hodges’ Triple Play.