Who Was Art Hodes?

Born in 1904 in what today is Ukraine, Art Hodes and his family left the country soon after, likely following a violent wave of attacks against Jewish families in their town. After docking in New York, they settled in Chicago, where a young Hodes began playing blues piano in the city's clubs. When Hodes was 24, in 1938, he moved to New York, where his reputation took off.

Here are a series of Chicago TV shows in 1969 that featured Hodes [pronounced HO-dees] and his band, courtesy of Ian R. Mackenzie, who found the YouTube links:

Here's Part 1 of Hodes on Chicago's public television station...

Here's Part 2...

And here's another, with Bud Freeman on tenor saxophone...