J. J. Johnson (jazz, swing, trombome)

J. J. Johnson - Plays Mack The Knife - 2009 (Lone Hil Jazz)







Genre: Swing, Mainstream
Country: US
Recording Date & Place: Dec 31, 1961
Original Release Date: Sep 8, 2009
Label: LHJ10376, ®&© Lone Hill Jazz, Licensed by Long Horn inc. , Made in the EU
Type: Compilation, Bonus Tracks

Source: Render's collection
Ripped - Uploaded by: Musicgate
Total time: 68:25
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Tracklist, Personel
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01 BILBAO SONG (Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht) [From Happy End] 4:05
02 BARBARA SONG (Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht) [From The Threepenny Opera] 6:06
03 OVERTURE (Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht) [From The Threepenny Opera] 5:03
04 SEERAUBER JENNY {Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht) [From The Threepenny Opera] 4:20
05 MACK THE KNIFE {Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht) [aka "Moritat"; From The Threepenny Opera] 4:52
06 SURABAYA-JOHNNY [From Happy End] 4:14
07 WIE MAN SICH BETTET {Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht) [From Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny] 6:07
08 UNZULANGLICHKEIT {Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht) [From The Threepenny Opera] 4:52

J.J. JOHNSON, trombone
ANDRE PREVIN, piano
RED MITCHELL, bass
FRANK CAPP, drums
Los Angeles, December 31, 1961.

09 PORTRAIT OF JENNY (Irving Burdge-Jessie Mae Robinson) 3:31 *
10 ONLY THE LONELY (Sammy Cahn-Jimmy Van Heusen) 2:31*
11 SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS CHILD (Traditional) 3:11*
12 IN A SENTIMENTAL MOOD (Duke Ellington) 2:35*
13 GET OUT OF TOWN (Cole Porter) 2:16*
14 I'M GLAD THERE IS YOU (Jimmy Dorsey-Pau! Mertz) 3:56*
15 YOU'RE MY GIRL (Sammy Cahn-Julie Styne) 2:57*
16 TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (J. & N. Sherman) 2:20*
17 WHAT IS THERE TO SAY (E. Y. Harburg-Vernon Duke) 2:24*
18 LAZY BONES (Johnny Mercer-Hoagy Carmichael) 2:58*

"Bonus Album (9-18):
J, J. JOHNSON-TROMBONE AND VOICES
J.J. Johnson (tb soloist) with orchestra & chorus conducted and arranged by Frank De Vol.
New York, June 23 (tracks 9, 11 & 18), 24 (tracks 13 & 15) & 28 (tracks 10, 12, 14 & 16-17), 1960.

Note: The opening track of Trombone and Voices was listed on the original LP as"Jenny's Song" and credited to (B. Herrman}. However no such song is listed on All Music Guide and the title recorded by Johnson is clearly "Portrait of Jenny", which Clifford Brown had recorded with strings in 1955.

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wrote on booklet
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This release contains the complete LP Plays Mack the Knife, appearing here on CD for the first time ever, it presents Johnson fronting a quartet that includes Andre Previn on piano, Red Mitchell on bass and Frank Capp on drums playing songs by the celebrated Kurt Weill. As a bonus, we have added another complete LP by Johnson, Trombone and Voices, which also appears here on CD for the first time ever. Although we are aware that the concept and arrangements on this bonus album might seem outdated, we believe that J. J.'s solos clearly merit it being reissued.


Original Liner Notes
J. J. Johnson/Andre Previn Play "Mack the Knife" and other Kurt Weill Songs
Although it was on such Broadway shows as Knickerbocker Holiday and Lady in the Dark that Kurt Weill built the superstructure of his reputation, the foundation of his contribution to 20th-century music lay in operas and operettas. It is mainly from this field that Andre Previn selected material for this album. The "Bilbao Song" and "Surabaya-Johnny" are from Happy End, one of Weill's lesser known shows. "Wie man sich bettet" is from the early opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. The rest were drawn from the work that has earned him most of his posthumous glory, Die Dreigroschenoper, better known as The Threepenny Opera, adapted from John Gay's Beggar's Opera, a smash hit of England's 1728 theatrical season, and now familiar, through its better-known melodies, to numberless listeners.
There is in much of Weill's early music a strong and nostalgic link with the Zeitgeist of Germany in the 1920s. In sketching routines for these jazz interpretations, Previn has retained this essential flavor. There are even hints of program music. When a carousel atmosphere was part of the original setting, you will observe, it is achieved here by subtle indirection, as is the cops-and-robbers mood of the last band on Side 1, dedicated to "Pirate Jenny".
The teaming of Andre Previn with J. J. Johnson, aside from the direct musical accomplishments to which it leads, provides a reminder that the two are far closer together spiritually than might have been suspected. Johnson, born in 1924 in Indianapolis, spent his late teens touring with territory bands. In 1945, when he was winding up a three-year incumbency with Benny Carter's orchestra, Andre had begun to attract attention as a teen-age prodigy and had made his recording debut.
Culturally, geographically, the two were thousands of miles apart in development, as they had been from birth. Yet at this time, both were touched by the impact of the new jazz. Just as surely as J. J. was to become a prime moving force in the bop movement, along with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, Andre was to come under the influence of the same trend and its leading exponents, notably Bud Powell.
In effect, from the standpoint of improvisation, Johnson and Previn are products of the same forces in jazz. It was logical that their ideas should blend so effectively in this collaboration. (Another link, of course, is that both are versed in classical music and are skilled composers and arrangers; both, therefore, respect the integrity of Weill and his melodies.)
With bassist Red Mitchell and drummer Frank Capp on hand to lend rhythmic undercurrent, Andre was able to make of this quartet a whole that was even more than the very considerable sum of its parts.
The ingenious weaving of contrapuntal lines, as in the "Overture", gave the unit an extraordinarily well-organized sound. The lyrical, muted mood established by J. J. in "Wie man sich bettet", the blues-like assertions of Andre in "Unzulanglichkeit", give the lie to the latter title, which means inadequacy or insufficiency.
The most interesting challenge offered by the session was that of "Moritat" (alias "Mack the Knife"). What could possibly be done to bring some new life and fresh character to a theme on which everyone -from Dick Hyman to Louis Armstrong to Bobby Darin to Ella Fitzgerald -seemed to have said the last word?
Andre had the answer. As you will hear, it came in the shape of a delightful exercise in bitonality (G flat for Previn, С for Johnson) and one of the most unexpected of endings -unexpected, yet unarguably logical, and humorous in the crafty Previn manner.

(unsigned)

Original Liner Notes
J. J. Johnson - Trombone And Voices
Let me briefly tell you about this new album by J. J. Johnson, J. J. Johnson, Trombone and Voices. It will warm your heart to hear the soft sounds in "Jennie's Song" or "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child". And listen to the excitement of "Get Out of Town" or "To the Ends of the Earth".
This album marks one of those rare occasions when idea, artist and arranger met in a harmonious blending of talent. It has often been said that the timbre of the trombone closely resembles that of the human voice. Too often the coupling of an instrument with voice or voices can lead to utter chaos -but not in this case.
This album by J. J. reminds me of the great record made some time ago by the late Charlie Parker with voices -"Old Folks" and "In the Still of the Night".
TEO MACERO, August 24,1960

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Review by
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The complete quartet LP Plays Mack the Knife, appearing here on CD for the first time ever. It presents Johnson fronting a quartet that includes Andre Previn on piano, Red Mitchell on bass and Frank Capp on drums playing songs by the celebrated Kurt Weill. As a bonus, we have added another complete LP by Johnson, Trombone and Voices, which also appears here on CD for the first time ever.

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This release contains the complete LP "Plays Mack the Knife" (1961), appearing here on CD for the first time ever. It presents Johnson fronting a quartet that includes Andre Previn on piano, Red Mitchell on bass and Frank Capp on drums -quartet recordings are not especially common in Johnson’s discography- playing songs by the celebrated Kurt Weill.

As a bonus, another complete LP by Johnson, "Trombone and Voices" (1960), which also appears here on CD for the first time. Although we are aware that the concept and arrangements on this bonus album might seen outdated, we believe that J.J.’s solos clearly merit it being reissued.

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