Hi Rhythm Section

Willie Mitchell, the producer behind Hi Records, assembled his celebrated studio band in the late 1960s by anchoring it with three gifted Hodges siblings: Mabon, known as Teenie, on guitar, Leroy on bass, and Charles on organ. Drummer Howard Grimes completed the core Memphis lineup, occasionally augmented by MG’s Al Jackson Jr. on select Al Green sessions. This compact quartet generated taut, simmering grooves for the label’s entire roster throughout its 1970s prime, supporting artists such as Green, Ann Peebles, Otis Clay, Syl Johnson, and Mitchell himself. Mitchell had begun refining the players while the Hodges brothers were still teenagers, although Grimes, several years older, already possessed sideman experience at the rival Stax organization during the early 1960s.

Operating under the concise name Hi Rhythm, the musicians issued the 1976 album On the Loose and maintained their partnership well into the following decade, supplying rich accompaniment on Syl Johnson’s 1994 Delmark comeback recording Back in the Game. Concurrently, billed as the Hodges Brothers, they released the 1994 album Perfect Gentlemen on the small Velvet Recordings of America label; the sessions included a fourth sibling, Fred, on keyboards and veteran soul singer Percy Wiggins on several tracks.