Maxwell's 2009 smash Blacksummer’snight has been a resounding
return for the R&B crooner. The mostly
live-recorded CD, featuring jazz-trained,
soul-savvy young guns who breathe and
morph with Maxwell’s every move, is both
a throwback and revelation that at last
threatens to loosen the mechanized grip
on contemporary R&B. Anchoring this
amoeboid ensemble is Derrick Hodge,
who at age 30 has already amassed the
necessary cred to musical-direct this allseeing
unit. Besides a bass baptism that
includes gospel, neo-soul, and straightahead
and experimental jazz, Hodge has
produced jazz and hip-hop artists alike,
and composed a handful of film scores.
Still, his sympathetic, multi-shaded bass
work—in conjunction with Chris Dave’s
dynamic drumming—is what ultimately
sets the tone for the singer’s stylish, intimate
mood poems.
Hodge was born on July 5, 1979, in
West Philadelphia, and discovered his
deep-end destiny soon after, at the Beulah
Baptist Church. While watching his
mother sing in the choir, he became
awestruck by bassist Joel Ruffin. At age
seven, with his family relocated to Willingboro,
New Jersey, he started on guitar
because the bass was too big for him, but
he quickly made the switch in second
grade, when he got a student-size Blade
P-Bass. In addition to playing gospel in
church, Hodge played bass guitar in his
grammar-school orchestra, giving him an
appreciation of classical music. Later,
Derrick’s junior high school bought him
an upright bass, which he eventually
played in his award-winning high school
jazz band and local youth orchestra, earning
him a soloist award in a Berklee
ensemble competition. Meanwhile, Derrick
took advantage of his rich musical
surroundings and the support of older
musicians such as bassist Jethaniel Nixon
and keyboardist/producer James Poyser.
He recalls, “My best friend growing up
was Thaddaeus Tribbett, who is an incredible
bassist. One night, his cousin, who
is also a bassist, introduced us to John
Patitucci, Jaco, and Marcus Miller, all in
one listening session. They became my
three main influences.”
On the advice of his high school band
teacher, Hodge attended Temple University
on an electric bass scholarship. He joined the orchestra and quickly found
himself having to re-learn the upright correctly,
via his teachers John Hood and
Vince Fay. By his third year he was working
with neo-soul staples Jill Scott, Musiq
Soulchild, and Floetry; the road beckoned,
but Hodge elected to stay in school.
He came under the tutelage of Christian
McBride, and upon graduating, he began
gigging with Philly jazz mainstay Bootsie
Barnes. Barnes suggested Hodge to pianist
Mulgrew Miller, with whom he recorded
four albums. Stepping back into hip-hop,
he recorded and toured with Common
before returning to jazz as a member of
Terence Blanchard’s band. The connection
was invaluable, as it enabled Hodge
to explore a long-held ambition to compose
for film. He admits, “I basically bombarded
Terence with questions the whole
time, and he was completely supportive
of my playing and writing.” In addition to
four CDs with the trumpeter, Hodge contributed
to two of Blanchard’s scores for
Spike Lee projects and attended the Sundance
Composers Lab on Blanchard’s
recommendation. There, he met composers
in other genres, eventually landing
a commission from the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra (for his composition
featuring 6-string bass and brass
ensemble) and scoring four independent
films. In 2009, the pop world beckoned
again with an offer from long-dormant
Maxwell.
How did you come to join Maxwell’s
band?
Through the recommendation of my
friend Chris Dave. He was friends with
Max, who along with producer Hod
David, had Chris and I come in to play
on some tracks. At the first session, I had
just finished tuning up and writing myself
a lead sheet for “Stop the World,” and
they pressed PLAY. I’ll never forget the
feeling I had playing along, that this was
going to be a special record. I hadn’t even
heard any of the other songs yet—I just
knew. Then the horn players came in and
did their thing, and it turned into a really
cool experience. Still, the success caught us all off guard. To have art for art’s sake
and balance that honesty with mass commercial
appeal is incredibly difficult. Max
has found a way to achieve that without
having to chase the sound that has been so
prevalent at the top of the charts. He has
no façade; he’s a genuine person who
respects music and musicians. He doesn’t
tell any of us what to play, but he hears
everything. I didn’t go through the Neve
preamp for one of the songs, and Max had
me come back and recut it, because he
heard the difference!
How did you come up with your parts?
Most of the songs were finished, with
bass parts played by Hod, when Chris and
I came in to redo the bass and drums, so
that gave me a starting point. Hod just told
me to play whatever I felt. I actually
recorded with his basses [a ’72 Fender Jazz
Bass, and one track on an Avella-Coppolo
J-Bass]. We put a different feel on some of
the songs, but mostly I tried to add vibe.
Each song was cut only once or twice, and
there were a few notes I wanted to go back
and change, which everybody was cool with.
There was a lot of trust there, and you can
hear that honesty in the music. My schedule
didn’t allow me to redo the last four
songs on the CD, so that’s Hod on those.
You’re on your second major tour for
the CD this year, having been named musical
director. Has the music evolved?
Absolutely; now that the world has
heard the CD and its statements, and
because we have the same musicians, we
were able to open up the music during
rehearsals in the spring. My job was to put
the arrangments together, but it’s a collective
effort; we didn’t even have a musical
director on the last tour. Just about everyone
in the band is a leader with solo projects
and albums, so the ideas and
contributions were flowing, yet everybody
knows how to keep the songs first. From
there we coordinated with the production
team, which sets up the stage show. We do
the whole CD plus some of Max’s older hits.
How has his your jazz training
impacted your hip-hop projects?
In numerous ways. Ear-training and
knowledge of jazz harmony helps you get
to the meat of a song by enabling you to
strip it down and figure out the chord
changes, voicings, instrumentation, and
arrangement, and really flesh out what the
sound of the song is. This applies rhythmically,
as well. The other key is the extensive
amount of time you spend studying
your instrument, and how you’re taught to
constantly balance and adapt; you learn
about nuance, which really comes into play
with music that’s less complicated. Oddly,
a lot of jazz musicians gain this information
and insight and apply it only to jazz,
but it applies well to all styles. For me, the
most rewarding aspect of being a young jazz
musician was the support of the older players,
like John Clayton, who has been a mentor.
Jazz is a small community and
everybody is listening; they dissect everything about your playing and track your
growth. They want to see you take it seriously,
because many of them didn’t get the
same opportunities. So you learn to be
accountable, do the research, and get as
much knowledge as you can. You owe it to
yourself and to the music.
Can you address your relationship
between the upright and the electric, and
your bass concept in general?
I approach them as separate instruments
with regard to touch, sound, and technique.
Stylistically, there’s definitely some
crossover; on the upright, at times, I may
reach beyond the conventional role in jazz
and apply some electric bass moves. On the
electric, I’ll mute certain notes more and in
a different way than the typical electric
bassist might, to get that upright vibe. When
it comes to concept, I never think about the
instrument specifically; I just play and focus on respecting the DNA of the song I’m
recording, and what it calls for. Live, I find
that artists want something to inspire them
every night, so I try to add presence and a
little edge, while still leaving space for everything
going on around me.
How does being a composer affect
your bass lines?
Mainly it has led me to try giving meaning
to everything I play, even if it’s improvised
in the moment. Another important
aspect is that I came up in gospel music,
where it’s all about emulating the vocalists.
I try to use that kind of phrasing for my bass
lines, melodies, and solos—something Marcus
Miller is a master of. No matter what
style of music you play, when you strap on
your bass, try to make ideas that sing.
Lesson: Esoteric
Derrick
Derrick Hodge's versatility and penchant
for possibility has led to his plucking various
basses in interesting places. Example 1
shows the main groove of “Bad Habits,” from
Maxwell’s BLACKsummer’snight CD, right
after Hodge enters at 1:07. He notes, “I
focused on vibe and dynamics; there are
some notes you almost can’t hear, like the
high E’s going into beat four.” Moving to the
album’s first single, “Pretty Wings,” Ex. 2
shows the first two measures of the second
chorus, at 2:14. Derrick explains, “I shifted
to the upper-register here, to sort of echo
the horns, and then I worked my way back
down.” The high-style part really takes flight
at the end of the track, with Hodge adding
some slapping and artifical harmonics.
Having brought his upright to hip-hop
with Mos Def and others, Hodge’s acoustic
takes center stage on Common’s “Be (Intro),”
from his CD of the same name. Example 3
shows the eight-bar phrase of what is actually a walking bass line against a programmed
half-time beat. “I had arranged an orchestral
beginning over this part, but Common and Kanye
West, who produced, decided they liked it with
just upright.” On the flipside, Hodge handled his
Callowhill 5-string for “Mantra Intro” and “Mantra,”
from jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s Tale
of God’s Will CD. Example 4 shows 12 of the
chord voicings he draws from on the rubato
“Intro.” “We had recorded the main piece, and
composer Kendrick Scott asked me to set it up
with a solo piece out front. I wanted to get a
resonant, open-string sound, so I started in A
and adapted some of the tonality of the main
track. The voicings were inspired by the classical
music I was listening to at the time, Ravel in
particular.” Derrick used a fingerstyle “claw”
position to grab the chords and notes in between.
Stretch before attempting these, and know that
even Derrick couldn’t reach all the notes in the
Dm(add9)/C chord at once!
Gear
Electric basses Callowhill J(unk) 5-string,
DH 6-string, MDM 5-string; fretless Status
Electro-4 4-string; Fender American Standard
Jazz Bass V; all with Sadowsky Nickel
& Stainless roundwound strings
Acoustic bass Circa-1990 Czech plywood
bass via David Gage, Gage Realist pickup,
French-style bow, Thomastik Spirocore
strings
Amps Aguilar AG 500 or DB 751 heads
with DB 410 or DB 412 cabinets, Aguilar
DB 900 tube DI & Tone Hammer preamp
Can Be Heard On
Maxwell, BLACKsummer’snight [Columbia,
2009]; Terence Blanchard, Choices
[Concord Jazz, 2009], Tale of God’s Will
[Angel, 2007]; Common, Be [Universal,
2005]; Gretchen Parlato, In a Dream
[ObliqSound, 2009]; Mulgrew Miller, Live
at Yoshi’s, Vol’s. 1 & 2 [Blue Note, 2004];
Robert Glasper, Double Booked [Blue Note,
2009]
Film scores Fauborg Tremé, 2008; The
Recruiter, 2008; The Black Candle, 2008;
Who the !@#% Is Jackson Pollock?, 2006