Biography
Born on 22 January 1921 in Paris, France, Hodeir pursued extended formal training in music while simultaneously cultivating a deep interest in jazz. During the late 1940s he contributed regularly to jazz journalism and eventually assumed the role of chief editor at the French publication Jazz Hot. He later authored a significant study that first appeared in the United States in 1956 under the title Jazz: Its Evolution And Essence. Although he performed on violin and participated in recording sessions alongside figures such as Django Reinhardt and Kenny Clarke, his primary inclinations lay in composition and critical writing, which soon curtailed his activity as an instrumentalist. Between the mid-1950s and the close of the 1960s he served as co-leader, alongside Bobby Jaspar, of Jazz Groupe De Paris, an ensemble created expressly to present his original works. In the 1960s he explored third stream music and produced compositions within that hybrid idiom; he was simultaneously sought after for film-score assignments. By the 1980s Hodeir had ceased composing altogether and redirected his efforts chiefly toward literary work. Recordings of his music reveal clear gifts for composition and arrangement, yet certain aspects of his writing—particularly within the third-stream idiom—render much of it relatively challenging for a broad audience. His critical writings remain engaging and insightful, even if they are frequently combative in tone and occasionally flawed in judgment. Still, they consistently stimulate thought, and several of his detailed examinations stand out for their precision and depth of knowledge.