Derrick Hodge released a great album on Blue Note Records last year, and celebrated the release of it with a couple of recent shows at the Blue Note Jazz Club in the Village. The Second celebrates the rare feat of a bass player taking over the songwriting duties and even playing most of the instruments. When he performed live, the songs were executed using a mixture of samples and drumming by Mike Mitchell.
For the early set, Hodge was joined by Robert Glasper and Elena Penderhughes, who brought an ecstatic energy to the crowd. The late set relied mostly on Mitchell and Hodge’s chemistry, which was in high gear as the audience woo’d their way through the hour-plus set. In addition to the material from The Second, Hodge also took on Radiohead, doing “2+2=5” in a weird, instrumental fashion.
These shows were a rare treat, but with any hope, not the last we’ll see of Hodge stepping into the bandleader roll.