Background
He was born Todd Washington Rhodes, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
conductor bandleader jazz musician
He was born Todd Washington Rhodes, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
Rhodes attended both the Springfield School of Music and the Erie Conservatory, studying as pianist and songwriter.
In the early 1920s he played with Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Fats Waller, Rex Stewart, Doc Cheatham, and Don Redman in McKinney"s Cotton Pickers, a jazz group. Rhodes lived and played in Detroit in the 1930s. In the late 1940s he started his own group, Todd Rhodes and His Toddlers, and started doing more Rhythm & Blues arrangements.
With his Toddlers, he recorded "Your Daddy"s Doggin" Around" and "Your Mouth Got a Hole In lieutenant" Rhodes also worked with Hank Ballard, The Chocolate Dandies and Wynonie Harris.
He featured African American female lead singers, such as Connie Allen, who recorded "Rocket 69" in 1951. After she left the band in early 1952, her position was taken by LaVern Baker.
His instrumental "Blues Foreign The Red Boy" became a top 5 Rhythm & Blues hit late in 1948, and was later famously used by Alan Freed as the theme song for his "Moondog" radio show. Freed apparently insisted on referring to the song as "Blues Foreign The Moondog" instead of its actual title.
Rhodes died in June 1965 in Detroit, at the age of 64.
