Indigo Stomp
LP RCA Vintage Series LPV-558
There have been clarinet players all over the world who wanted to play like Johnny Dodds. I’ve had the pleasure of playing gigs with a few of them. Cy Laurie from England, Matthias Seuffert from Germany (still active), and Claus Forchhammer from Peruna Jazzmen in Denmark.
Today I listen to the real thing, well recorded by Victor in 1929 and well reissued in the Vintage Series in 1968.
Dodds continues to fascinate. The blues is his signum, and on two of the titles recorded on February 7, the word “blue” is also in the title, so I suppose that they needed to make a variation for the third one with “indigo,” and while listening to Johnny’s clarinet you hear many shades of blue.
With the Johnny Dodds Trio, Lil Armstrong is at the piano and Bill Johnson plays bass.