IT WAS not until the summer of 1955 that Jay Jay Johnson, name band musician and soloist respected and imitated during the past decade by innumerable performers all over the world, finally won a Down Beat poll. In informed quarters there were audible murmurs of "About time too"; in other sympathetic hip circles the reaction was "Better late than never."
Blue Note record fans were way ahead of the critics who awarded Jay Jay this belated crown. The amazing young trombonist has been an important part of the Blue Note catalog ever since his first appearance years ago with Howard McGhee's All Stars on BLP 5012. He was heard as sideman with Miles Davis on 5013 and 5022 and with Kenny Dorham on 5065 in addition to appearing as a leader in the three outstanding LPs listed and described below.
The place of Jay Jay Johnson in jazz history parallels that of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker on their respective instruments. He was the first, and by all odds the foremost, of those who showed in the mid-1940s that it was possible to translate the rhythmic, melodic and harmonic innovations of bop into terms of that cumbersome and not too easily manipulated instrument, the slide trombone.
Jay Jay earned his nickname from his first and last initials: he was born James Louis Johnson. A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, he showed his first musical talent as a pianist in 1935, when he was eleven years old, and took up trombone three years later. After working with Clarence Love and Snookum Russell in 1941-2, he acquired his first taste of widespread recognition as a member of the Benny Carter band, with which he toured from late '42 until '45 (Max Roach was a member of the orchestra during this period). When Count Basie decided a new sound was needed in his trombone section, Jay Jay was the one who instilled it, for several months in 1945-6. Then came a long period of free-lancing with various combos in the hectic whirl of the jumping Fifty-second Street of those days. Jay Jay free-lanced with Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman and a nock of bop units. For more than a year he was on the road with Illinois Jacquet's band.
By this time Jay Jay was the acknowledged king of his style in modern jazz circles. A board of critics and musicians assembled by Esquire had elected him the new trombone star of the year in 1946. Before long his fame had reached international proportions. With the advent of war in the Far East, Jay Jay teamed up with Oscar Pettiford in a USO unit that entertained the troops in Korea and Japan. On returning home, though, Jay Jay found that the bottom seemed to be falling out of the music business. The pickings were so lean during the next few months that in August, 1952 he took a job as a blueprint inspector at a Sperry factory in Long Island, limiting his musical activities to an occasional one-night gig or record session. Then things began looking up again, and in June 1954 Jay was able to give up his daytime chores to return to the occupation for which his talent and years of patient practice had originally designed him. He has worked pretty steadily since then, often in partnership with Kai Winding. During all the ups and downs he has never lost the esteem in which iazzmen and fans always held him.
Jay Jay's sessions for Blue Note form a striking illustration of the variety of ideas, styles and moods with which he has succeeded in surrounding himself through the years. Each record shows a new setting, a different approach and an• equally attractive presentation of the unique Johnson facility.
BLP 5028 JAY JAY JOHNSON SEXTET vol. 1
Jay Jay's companions on this date are Clifford Brown, the extraordinary young trumpet star from Wilmington, Delaware, already familiar to Blue Note listeners from numerous other LP appearances; Jimmy "Little Bird" Heath on tenor and baritone sax and his brother Percy Heath on bass; John Lewis, the brilliant pianist and arranger; and Kenny Clarke, paterfamilias of the modern drum school.
Get Happy is the 1929 Harold Arlen composition long familiar as a standard among jazzmen. Note the particularly happy blend on the release of the opening chorus and the loose agility of Jay Jay's two solo choruses. An interesting feature is the rhythmic suspension effect in the last eight measures of each chorus. Clifford Brown's solo shows a superb sense of continuity; John Lewis, too, turns in two fine choruses.
Lover Man, has been recorded dozens of times, but never more charmingly than in this trombone solo version, played by Jay Jay throughout except for an eight-bar piano interlude.
Capri is a fast original by former Hampton saxophonist Gigi Gryce. built on a rising and falling phrase. All four soloists handsomely; a special point of interest is the Jimmy Heath tenor solo which seems to suggest how he got his nickname. for his style is strongly reminiscent of the rare tenor saxophone contributions of Charlie Parker.
Sketch 1 might aptly be titled John Lewis' Mind At work. An ingenious sample of Lewis' ability to make the most out of a modest instrumentation. it employs a variety of approaches: Jimmy Heath playing a melodic baritone line against brass unison. Clifford Brown playing muted double-time effects against abrupt punctuations. a typical Jay Jay solo, then a return to the original slow mood and a simple unison horn ending.
By way of contrast Turnpike is built on a simple, jumping phrase around the tonic. Observe Clifford Brown's use of the "cycle of fifths" chord pattern on his second solo chorus; the others follow suit in their solos.
It Could Happen to You. Jay Jay performs this beautiful tune in a style that combines a respect for the melody with a reflection of his individual personality.
BLP 5057 JAY JAY JOHNSON QUINTET vol. 2
In this unusual session Jay Jay maintains the musical interest of the group, participating as the only horn man involved and changing the overall sound by the inclusion of Sabu Martinez. Sabu is one of the younger generation in the Afro-Cuban drum dynasty of which Chano Pozo may be said to have been the founding father. Wynton Kelly, the pianist, is a youthful star born in December, 1931, in Jamaica, B.W.I. Both before and after his Army service, which ended in June, 1954, he was a member of Dizzy Gillespie's combo. Wynton was featured in his own LP on BLP 5025. The rhythm section is completed by Kenny Clarke and the very able Charlie Mingus.
Jay is an up-tempo blues in which Wynton, Jay Jay and Sabu are all heard to an advantage and ingenious use is made of modulations.
Time After Time was one of the better pop songs of 1947 (you may remember having heard Sarah Vaughan do it). Here it makes a fine solo vehicle for Jay Jay in one of his more melodic moods.
Old Devil Moon, a 1946 product of Finian's Rainbow, starts in a mysterioso style with a captivating introduction in which Mingus sets a vamp. Sabu keeps busy throughout, Wynton has some very Cuban moments, and generally the tune is invested with a new and unconventional spirit.
Too Marvelous for Words. Two things to watch for are. first, the fine balance and blend between the two drummers, and second, the effective use of rhythmic breaks at three-beat intervals behind some passages of Jay Jay's solo.
The 1948 song It's You Or No One, like Time After Time, is a Julie Styne-Sammy Cohn opus first introduced to jazz lovers by Sarah Vaughan. The unexpected key change in the second eight measures undoubtedly explain why this tune appeals so much to musicians.
Coffee Pot, a fast-moving 32-bar original by Johnson, features him on the second chorus accompanied by just Mingus and Clarke. Wynton Kelly's choruses seem to show some Bud Powell influence, plus his own brand of single-line originality.
BLP 5070 JAY JAY JOHNSON QUINTET vol. 3
Still another type of group is represented by this session. Here the blend is that of two horns that belong together as naturally as the two hands of a pianist: trombone and tenor sax. Hank Mobley, Jay Jay's choice on tenor, is a Gillespie alumnus whose work with Horace Silver on BLP 5058 attracted favorable attention. Horace also, of course, is too familiar to Blue Note customers to need any introduction here, while Kenny Clarke remains on drums as the one constant element of the three otherwise variegated Johnson sessions. Paul Chambers, a youthful and highly schooled musician, has come to prominence during the past year as a member of the Johnson-Winding quintet.
"Daylie" Double, composed by Jay Jay, is dedicated to the popular Chicago disc jockey Daddio Daylie. A simple melodic theme on which the tenor is used mostly in thirds, it offers a point of departure for all the soloists, including a last chorus in which Jay Jay and Hank trade four-bar phrases with Clarke, then return to the ensemble theme and land on a major seventh ending.
You're Mine You, a tune that has been too rarely recorded, was produced by the same team (Edward Heyman and Johnny Green) that wrote Body and Soul. Jay Jay takes the melody solo, in a style that is at once languorous and sentimental yet vigorous and virile.
Pennies From Heaven, a standard among jazzmen ever since Basie recorded it some 19 years ago, opens unexpectedly with Chambers playing the melody of the last half-chorus. Then the two horns enter to play a variant theme in both unison and harmony.
Jay Jay takes the second chorus, muted, while Horace lays out in the rhythmic accompaniment. Mobley's solo shows his unusually fine sense of time and control.
Groovin' is a medium-slow original with a truly groovy feel to which the two-beat bass work and funky piano background contribute conspicuously. For our money, Horace almost steals the show on this one with his authentically blues-like yet unmistakably modern 16-bar contribution. After a return to the theme, there is an old-iimey "blue seventh" ending.
The next title, Viscosity, means a sticky, gluey-like thickness, and frankly, we cant see anything viscous about the bright rising inflections of the 40-bar chorus. On the contrary, Jay Jay has seldom sounded more fluent and supple. He and Hank and Horace all take their solo turns, proceeding in what might presumably be called a viscous circle.
On Portrait of Jennie, a 1948 composition rarely performed by jazz musicians, Jay Jay plays the melody muted, at on easy medium tempo, stepping out for 16 bars while Horace takes over.
This session is the most recent of Jay Jay's impeccable contributions to the Blue Note catalog. Like its predecessors it offers substantial proof that his is one of the truly individual and exciting voices in modern jazz.
—LEONARD FEATHER
Cover Photos by Francis Wolff
