Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,842

This is the grave of Johnny Dodds.

Born in 1892 in Waveland, Mississippi, Dodds grew up in a musical family. I don’t know a lot about his family’s background, but given their access to instruments outside of cheap guitars, it seems they were a bit better off than those stuck in the horrors of sharecropping. His father and uncle both played violin and his sister played a melodeon, which is a type of accordion. Someone bought a toy flute for young Dodds as a kid and he took to blowing into anything. His younger brother Warren, better known as Baby, became an equally prominent jazz drummer, though rivalry between the two brothers as they became successful would seriously damage relations between them.

When he was a kid, Dodds and family moved to New Orleans. He soon began to take clarinet lessons and that would become his instrument. He took lessons from local legends such as Lorenzo Tio and by the time he was in his 20s, was playing with the biggest jazz bands in New Orleans, including for Kid Ory and King Oliver. He traveled north with Oliver’s band in 1923, recording sides in Chicago that year. Dodds liked Chicago but he did not like touring, so he left Oliver’s band and stayed up north, becoming a key player in that city’s growing Black music scene. He was the clarinetist in the house band at Kelly’s Stables, a major jazz club in that city that employed the very best musicians available. And when the big players would come to Chicago, Dodds would often play with them. Since they were often recording there, he was the clarinetist on a lot of major recordings, including some of Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings, as well as Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers. The clarinet solo on Armstrong’s legendary “Potato Head Blues” is Dodds.

Dodds also became an important recording artist in his own right, starting a somewhat on and off band called Johnny Dodds’ Black Bottom Stompers. They recorded for a variety of labels, including Paramount and Victor. Dodds became a huge inspiration for the next generation of jazz clarinetists, with Benny Goodman being particularly effusive in his praise of Dodds’ singular tone. He also was known for his loud playing, holding his own in terms of sound with any cornetist who had an advantage with an inherently louder instrument.

Alas, the 1930s were a disaster for the music industry, as so few people had money to buy records and go to shows. Moreover was already having health issues. He was the rare jazz musician of the era who did not drink. So I’m not totally sure what happened. But he barely recorded at all in the 30s, just once in 1938. He went back into the studio in 1940 as well.

This is a fantastic conversation about Dodds between two real experts on this music, which I am not. You will learn much more from these guys than you will from this post, so check it out.

Maybe he could have had a comeback in the World War II era, but later in 1940, Dodds had a stroke and died. He was 48 years old.

Let’s listen to some Johnny Dodds.

Johnny Dodds is buried in Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Illinois.

In 1987, Dodds was inducted into the Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame, which is perhaps the highest accolade in the music. If you would like this series to visit other members of the Hall, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Thad Jones, inducted in 87 as well, is in Copenhagen, so get your pocketbooks out and donate now now now! For you less generous people who probably have spurious claims to “house payments” and “credit card debt,” Teddy Wilson, also inducted in 1987, is in New Britain, Connecticut and Jaco Pastorius, inducted in 1988, is in North Lauderdale, Florida. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.