The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 1

The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 1
Studio album by J. J. Johnson
Released	1955
Recorded	June 22, 1953
Genre	Jazz
Length	37:44
Label	Blue Note
J. J. Johnson chronology
J. J. Johnson's Jazz Quintets (1946-49) The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 1 (1953) The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 2 (1954-55)

The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 1 is an album by American jazz trombonist J. J. Johnson, featuring studio performance recorded in June 22, 1953. Part of its material was originally released on the Blue Note label as a 10-inch LP record entitled J. J. Johnson with Clifford Brown.^[1] At the time of the recording session, Johnson had withdrawn from full-time playing to work as a blueprint inspector.^[2][3]

The 2001 CD reissue included three alternative takes as bonus tracks.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	(Crown award)[3]

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars and stated "Although Johnson has a couple of features, Clifford Brown largely steals the show".^[4] The Penguin Guide to Jazz included both volumes of The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson in its "Core Collection", and assigned its "crown" accolade, along with a four-star rating (of a possible four stars), to both albums.^[3] Penguin editors Richard Cook and Brian Morton called the first volume "one of the central documents of post-war jazz."^[3]

Release history

Part of the album was originally released as part of Blue Note's 10-inch Modern Jazz 5000 Series, as BLP 5028, entitled Jay Jay Johnson with Clifford Brown. When reissued in the 12-inch 1500 series of LPs, the tracks from the session were spread over two albums and combined with tracks from a later session (which had been released as The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson (BLP 5057)), producing The Eminent J. J. Johnson, Volume 1 (BLP 1505) and The Eminent J. J. Johnson, Volume 2 (BLP 1506).^[5] The CD reissue put the original six tracks from BLP 5028 together with three alternative takes from the same session and had the title The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Volume 1, although variations in punctuation do occur.^[6][7] Although it uses the same artwork as BLP 1505 it is essentially an expanded reissue of the original "Jay Jay Johnson With..." 10 inch album (BLP 5028) rather than "The Eminent..." (BLP 1505) compilation itself.

Track listing

Personnel

• J.J. Johnson – trombone
• Clifford Brown – trumpet (except 5)
• Jimmy Heath – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone (except 5)
• John Lewis – piano
• Percy Heath – bass
• Kenny Clarke – drums

References