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J.J. Johnson
![J.J. Johnson is an NEA Jazz Master J.J. Johnson is an NEA Jazz Master](http://www.allaboutjazz.com/images/nea-jazz-masters.png)
He made his recording debut with Carter (taking a solo on "Love for Sale" in 1943) and played at the first JATP concert (1944). Johnson also had led plenty of solo space during his stay with Count Basie's Orchestra (1945-46). During 1946-50, he played with all of the top bop musicians including Charlie Parker (with whom he recorded in 1947), the Dizzy Gillespie big band, Illinois Jacquet (1947-49) and the Miles Davis Birth of the Cool Nonet. His own recordings from the era included such sidemen as Bud Powell and a young Sonny Rollins. J.J., who also recorded with the Metronome All-Stars, played with Oscar Pettiford (1951) and Miles Davis (1952) but then was outside of music, working as a blueprint inspector for two years (1952-54).
His fortunes changed when in August 1954 he formed a two -trombone quintet with Kai Winding that became known as Jay and Kai and was quite popular during its two years. After J.J. and Kai went their separate ways (they would later have a few reunions), Johnson led a quintet that often included Bobby Jaspar.
He began to compose ambitious works starting with 1956's "Poem for Brass" and including "El Camino Real" and a feature for Dizzy Gillespie, "Perceptions"; his "Lament" became a standard. Johnson worked with Miles Davis, during part of 1961-62, led some small groups of his own, and by the late '60s was kept busy writing television and film scores. J.J. Johnson was so famous in the jazz world that he kept on winning DOWN BEAT polls in the 1970s even though he was not playing at all! However, starting with a Japanese tour in 1977, J.J. gradually returned to a busy performance schedule, leading a quintet in the 1980s that often featured Ralph Moore.
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Your Favorite Jazz Trombonists
![Read "Your Favorite Jazz Trombonists" reviewed by Michael Ricci](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/a_small/1471c382e2829a1dd0b7911ae52fce05.jpg)
by Michael Ricci
Member votes were tabulated and this list represents our favorite jazz trombonists. Fully transparent and easily verifiable, All About Jazz's favorite trombonists poll was conducted during the 2023-2024 calendar year and ran up through April 23, 2024. We want to thank every member who participated in creating this impressive list (100 total!) for the next generation of jazz enthusiasts to discover. 1J.J. Johnson2Bill Watrous3Curtis Fuller4Steve Turre5Bob Brookmeyer6Kai Winding7Slide Hampton8Trombone Shorty9Frank Rosolino10Tommy Dorsey11Grachan Moncur III12Ray Anderson13Julian Priester14Roswell Rudd15Robin Eubanks16Jimmy ...
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by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
Raul De Souza's life can be seen as a one-of-a-kind story. Indeed, it would make a perfect novel or film script. It may not be as big a tragedy as 'Round Midnight or Bird, but it has drama, love, adventure, and great music. Picture this: a poor child grows up in Brazil working as a weaver and practicing trombone in conversations with a buffalo in the jungle, dreaming of someday becoming an internationally famous jazzman. Suddenly, this dream ...
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Someone famously called jazz the sound of surprise, but all too often, what is on offer is the dull hum of routine. Or something like that. This historic reissue is, however, anything but routine. This is not the first time that Teddy Reig's Savoy sides have been reissued (was he also the mysterious Buck Ram listed as producing one track?), but Craft Recordings took a lot of trouble to produce this very fine selection. If a listener were, ...
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As the great Sigmund Freud said, sometimes an EP is just an EP. In this case, actually, it's six EP's, as the boys look at that chimera of the early LP era, the ten-inch long-playing record, focusing on releases from the early to mid-nineteen fifties on Blue Note and Fantasy, along with a Resonance Records' Record Store Day release of archival guitar music recorded in mid-fifties Indianapolis but not released until the twenty-first century. Much musing about the special flavor ...
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by Ludovico Granvassu
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![Read "J.J. Johnson: An Eminent Life in Music" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/jjjohnson.jpg)
by Victor L. Schermer
This interview with trombonist J.J. Johnson along with Joshua Berrett and Louis G. Bourgois III, authors of his biography, The Musical World of J.J. Johnson (Scarecrow Press) was first published at All About Jazz in November 1999. All About Jazz: Congratulations to Josh and Louis on your new book--and to J.J. for now having a scholarly reference devoted to your outstanding contributions to music. Just for the fun of it, which three recordings and/or scores would you take ...
read moreJazz Musician of the Day: J.J. Johnson
![Jazz Musician of the Day: J.J. Johnson](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/55b37d0cdb691c1a7c92e5fd131cb1ec.jpg)
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating J.J. Johnson's birthday today!
Considered by many to be the finest jazz trombonist of all time, J.J. Johnson somehow transferred the innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to his more awkward instrument, playing with such speed and deceptive ease that at one time some listeners assumed he was playing valve (rather than slide) trombone! Johnson toured with the territory bands of Clarence Love and Snookum Russell during 1941-42 and then spent 1942-45 with Benny ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: J.J. Johnson
![Jazz Musician of the Day: J.J. Johnson](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/55b37d0cdb691c1a7c92e5fd131cb1ec.jpg)
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating J.J. Johnson's birthday today!
Considered by many to be the finest jazz trombonist of all time, J.J. Johnson somehow transferred the innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to his more awkward instrument, playing with such speed and deceptive ease that at one time some listeners assumed he was playing valve (rather than slide) trombone! Johnson toured with the territory bands of Clarence Love and Snookum Russell during 1941-42 and then spent 1942-45 with Benny ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: J.J. Johnson
![Jazz Musician of the Day: J.J. Johnson](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/55b37d0cdb691c1a7c92e5fd131cb1ec.jpg)
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating J.J. Johnson's birthday today!
Considered by many to be the finest jazz trombonist of all time, J.J. Johnson somehow transferred the innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to his more awkward instrument, playing with such speed and deceptive ease that at one time some listeners assumed he was playing valve (rather than slide) trombone! Johnson toured with the territory bands of Clarence Love and Snookum Russell during 1941-42 and then spent 1942-45 with Benny ...
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J.J. Johnson and Bobby Jaspar
![J.J. Johnson and Bobby Jaspar](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/55b37d0cdb691c1a7c92e5fd131cb1ec.jpg)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Tropical storm Isaias blew into New York around 11 a.m. yesterday, whipped things around and split at about 3 p.m. When it did, the sun came out and the 35-mph gusts began, cooling things off a bit. For some reason, I craved J.J. Johnson and his distinct, muffled trombone sound. The albums I turned to were the three he made with the Belgian woodwind player Bobby Jaspar. On J Is for Jazz (1956), Dial J.J. 5 (1957) and Live at ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: J.J. Johnson
![Jazz Musician of the Day: J.J. Johnson](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/55b37d0cdb691c1a7c92e5fd131cb1ec.jpg)
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating J.J. Johnson's birthday today!
Considered by many to be the finest jazz trombonist of all time, J.J. Johnson somehow transferred the innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to his more awkward instrument, playing with such speed and deceptive ease that at one time some listeners assumed he was playing valve (rather than slide) trombone! Johnson toured with the territory bands of Clarence Love and Snookum Russell during 1941-42 and then spent 1942-45 with Benny ...
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J.J. Johnson: Broadway Express
![J.J. Johnson: Broadway Express](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/coverart/large/c81b7e5bfa8ea4d81c2bbcecbbf57a4d.jpg)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Back in the 1960s, jazz guitarist Mundell Lowe was busy. In addition to recording as a leader and sideman, he arranged and conducted sessions for his own band and for others, always with enormous taste. His albums as an arranger, conductor and player included Satan in High Heels (1961), a film score; Hey! This is Kevin Gavin (1962); Jerry Winters Again (1962); Alice Darr (1962); The Happiness of Joe Mooney (1963); The Greatness of Joe Mooney (1963); and two tracks ...
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