TamTam Books' Tribute to Andre Hodeir

Andre Hodeir is very much a mysterious figure to me - because its difficult to find his work and I suspect that he may be obscure in his native country France.  But saying that, Hodeir is a Jazz composer/arranger and a jazz theorist.  He has written numerous books like down below

"Andre Hodeir Jazz Reader" is still in print as far as I know and its a great collection of his writings on Jazz.   As for his other books I usually find them in very literate used bookstores in various parts of the world.  Grove used to issue his books during the 1960's.  

I discovered Hodeir through my obsession on Boris Vian.  He knew Vian, and in 1968 he did the soundtrack to L'écume des jours, which is....fan-tas-tic.  One of the best music EP's I have ever heard.  A mixture of classical, jazz and early electronics.   It took me forever to find an original copy of the disk

You can hear a touch of the music in this clip from the film:

 But when I did, I totally forgot what I paid for it.  A lot of money (at the time) but like something pleasurable that has pain attached to it - you forget the pain and only the pleasure stays in your mind and ears, in the particular case.    

His album "Jazz et Jazz" is probably his masterpiece.  A collection of uber-cool orchestrated jazz music with the title cut being probably one of the great eccentric recordings of the 50's.   The spirit of Joe Meek is in Andre Hodeir and the spirit is in Meek as well.   Listen to this amazing piece of music:

Jazz et Jazz by Andre Hodeir

Here's rare footage of Andre Hodeir conducting a band featuring Roger Guerin doing "Jordu."

Here are some cuts from the incredible "Kenny Clarke Plays Andre Hodeir

Here is Andre Hodeir with the great Christiane Legrand, Henri Crolla,  "Une Parisienne OST

Some very early Hodeir music:

James Moody with Strings.  Arranged and conducted by Andre Hodeir:

Here are some of his album covers:

Hodeir at work!