Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Phil Bodner

Philip L. Bodner (June 13, 1917 – February 24, 2008) was an American multi-instrumentalist and studio musician, active in jazz and popular music idioms. Best known as a reedist, he played clarinet, saxophone, oboe, English horn, and flute. Bodner was born in Waterbury, Connecticut and played in the 1940s and 1950s as a sideman for studio recordings in New York City; he did jazz sessions with Benny Goodman in 1958 and with Miles Davis and Gil Evans in 1958. He organized The Brass Ring, a group modeled after Herb Alpert, which had popular success in the mid-1960s, and also played with Oliver Nelson and J.J. Johnson in that decade. Associations in the 1970s included Oscar Peterson, Yusef Lateef, Peanuts Hucko, Wild Bill Davison, and Ralph Sutton. Bodner also pla… more »