Johnny Dodds: Deep Blue Clarinet

Hal Smith: Jeff, since I suggested Johnny Dodds as the subject for our second column in The Syncopated Times, I would like to select the first side for our discussion. My choice is “House Rent Rag” by the Dixieland Jug Blowers. This was actually the first record where I could hear Johnny Dodds clearly. He was already boiling under the ensemble when they started playing at the end of that mock-sermon, and when he played that first break—it was like a bolt of blue lightning shot out of the speaker. It was so thrilling to hear, and I loved the way Dodds kept playing hot, bluesy clarinet all the way to the last bar. My hat is off to whoever came up with the great idea to bring in Johnny Dodds to play with the Dixieland Jug Blowers for that session. This record made me a Johnny Dodds fan for life. Jeff Barnhart: Great start, my friend. I went back to that cut and sat through the hokum that leads up to that marvelous break by Dodds: in that single moment, jazz overcame the hoe-down flavor of what preceded it. His second break on the next chorus is just as thrilling. At that time, Dodds was the instrumentalist most in-tune with bending the notes he was playing, both influenced by, and influencing, the blues vocalists of the day. His was an almost human wail. It’s illustrative how he remained dis