Hot Man: The Life of Art Hodes

by Art Hodes, Chadwick Hansen

This memoir by the internationally renowned jazz pianist Art Hodes, born in Russia in 1904, is in its own way a blues, a lament for and a celebration of music and musicians we have lost. The last of the living legends among Chicago jazz musicians, Hodes joins with jazz historian Chadwick Hansen to provide a unique perspective on more than seven decades of jazz history.
With an honesty not usually found in jazz books, Hot Man captures Hodes's professional career from his apprenticeship in Chicago in the 1920s to the present. The book offers remarkable inside views of gangster clubowners, the great New York jazz clubs and the vicious "jazz wars" of the 1940s, Chicago from the 1950s, the very closed and special world of jazz musicians, the curious relationships between musicians and their audiences, and Hodes's experiences with jazz greats including Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke. No other white musician has given us such a full account of learning to play from black musicians.
This intimate journey takes us to a vast circle of fellow musicians, to recording companies and the business of the profession, to Nodes's other career as a writer and editor of the Jazz Record, a publication that existed through most of the 1940s. Hodes's story includes almost thirty photographs and a comprehensive discography, filling a gap in the world of jazz literature.

Genres: Music

160 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1992

Reviews

[Norman Tibbils · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book about a piano player in Chicago. Life was simpler then!

[Joe Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved reading this book about early Chicago jazz piano player, Art Hodes. Much of the book is in his own words, great to hear his lingo. Talks about his own career and all the musicians he played with and the records he made.