André Hodeir

Hodeir was born in Paris and trained as a classical violinist and composer. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he was taught by Olivier Messiaen and won first prizes in fugue, harmony, and music history. While pursuing these studies he discovered jazz and various music forms besides jazz and classical. He recorded on violin under the pseudonym "Claude Laurence". As a critic, his tough but insightful analytic writings were much acclaimed and influential (Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence; English edition 1956).

In 1954 he was a founder and director of Jazz Groupe de Paris, which included Bobby Jaspar, Pierre Michelot and Nat Peck. In 1957, at the invitation of Ozzie Cadena of Savoy Records, he recorded an album of his compositions with Donald Byrd, Idrees Sulieman, Frank Rehak, Hal McKusick, Eddie Costa, George Duvivier, and Annie Ross.

In addition to two books of Essais (1954 and 1956), he wrote film scores, including Le Palais Idéal by Ado Kyrou for the film Chutes de pierres, danger de mort by Michel Fano, and Brigitte Bardot's Une Parisienne. He founded an orchestra during the 1960s and composed a work based on the Anna Livia Plurabelle story from the novel Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.

He died in Versailles.

• Jazz et Jazz (Philips, 1963)
• American Jazzmen Play Andre Hodeir's Essais (Savoy, 1957)
• The Paris Scene (Savoy, 1957)
• Anna Livia Plurabelle (Philips, 1966)
• Bitter Ending with Les Swingle Singers (Epic, 1972)
• The Historic Donaueschingen Jazz Concert 1957 with Eddie Sauter (Pausa, 1980)