J.J. Johnson - Blue Trombone (1974 Japanese CBS/Sony Mono Vinyl LP)

J.J. Johnson - Blue Trombone | Vinyl LP - 1974 Japanese CBS/Sony Mono Reissue (SOPM 151, Best Jazz Collection series)

J.J. Johnson did for the trombone what Charlie Parker did for the alto, which is to say he made it keep up. Before him the instrument was thought too slow and unwieldy for bebop; Johnson played it with the speed and clean articulation of a saxophone and settled the argument. Blue Trombone catches him in 1957 in the quartet setting that suited him best, with Tommy Flanagan's elegant piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Max Roach on drums, about as good a rhythm section as the era offered. The programme moves between standards and originals. "Hello, Young Lovers" and "What's New" get the ballad treatment, "Kev" and "100 Proof" stretch out past eight minutes with room to blow, and the title piece is a slow blues in two parts, split across the sides at Chambers' bass solo. Throughout, Johnson's tone stays warm and his lines stay precise, never showy, always swinging.

The sessions went so well that Johnson came away with enough for two albums, the companion being First Place, cut with the same quartet. By this point he was a perennial winner of the Down Beat critics poll and the reference point for every trombonist who followed, from Curtis Fuller to Slide Hampton. What the record shows, more than any single solo, is how completely he had normalised the idea of the trombone as a front-line bebop voice.

This copy is the 1974 Japanese mono reissue on CBS/Sony, part of the Best Jazz Collection series, catalogue number SOPM 151, with Japanese liner notes.