[Dixielandjazz] The backup on JJ Johnson

[Kay Spencer]

Steve,
   
  Did you forget to take your Midol?
   
  Kay
   
  off line for the weekend...


  
Ha, Ha, Love you too Mike, even in your ignorance. Below is the backup for
the fact that some reed players are not as ignorant as some brass players
about JJ Johnson and how he was perceived in the 40s/50s.

If you can spare a few moments from your busy gig schedule, you might get
educated via the following quotes from sources a bit more informed than
yourself about the subject matter. Including one from a bio at
www.trombone.org 


Quotes (three different sources) begin >>>>>

"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."

"In 1944, he played at the very first concert of Jazz at the Philharmonic.
J.J.'s fluid style and rapid fire technique on the trombone soon gained him
notoriety. His technique on slide trombone was so clean, in fact, that most
people at the time swore he was playing valve trombone. J.J. has stated that
his '. . . original influences were Pres and Roy, then Diz and Bird'."

"His incredible accuracy at manipulating the slide trombone (many people who
hadn't seen him play thought he must have been playing a valve instrument),
contributed to the acceptance of the instrument in a genre where tempi were
often very fast and the melodies very chromatic and rhythmically complex. He
was present as a sideman in December, 1947 with Charlie Parker in the Dial
Records session following Bird's release from Camarillo."

Quotes end >>>>> BTW, many more similar quotes are available

If you want to hear what the above quotes are talking about, or for your own
edification, go to the following web site. Scroll down a bit and click on
the following two Mp3s. All the while trying to put yourself back into that
time context and think what that would have sounded like compared with all
of the other slide trombone players you heard playing before that. What
conclusion would you have drawn back then? What conclusions would the
general public have drawn back then? What do "some", "many" and "most" mean.
Then, before shooting the messenger . . . think.

Of course you may still wish to contest the above quotes and MP3s and that's
OK too. Lots of people live in denial. Everybody has a right to an opinion
and some who voice them, however unsupported, may truly know more than those
who have studied and written about JJ. Johnson. But, I doubt it. :-) VBG.

1) 12/17/47 "Crazeology" Parker, Roach. JJ, Duke Jordan, Tommy Potter

2) 5/3/57 "Blue Trombone" Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers, JJ.

http://www.trombone.org/articles/library/jjtribute.asp

Too often we bitch that "they" don't teach jazz in the schools. Yet how many
of us take the trouble to learn about it?

"We have met they enemy and 'they' is us." - - Pogo

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


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Kay Spencer