The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson (album)

The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 1 is an album by American jazz trombonist J. J. Johnson, featuring performances recorded in 1953. It was originally released on the Blue Note label as a 10-inch LP record entitled J. J. Johnson with Clifford Brown. At the time of the recording session, Johnson had withdrawn from full-time playing to work as a blueprint inspector.

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

Reception
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". 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. Penguin editors Richard Cook and Brian Morton called the first volume "one of the central documents of post-war jazz."

Release history
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). 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.

Personnel

 * J.J. Johnson – trombone
 * Clifford Brown – trumpet
 * Jimmy Heath – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
 * John Lewis – piano
 * Percy Heath – bass
 * Kenny Clarke – drums