[78-L] Some thoughts on J.J.Johnson

[Julian Vein]

"I really cannot imagine what attracted me to the trombone. It's the 
most ungainly, awkward, beastly hard instrument you can imagine." 
(Interview with Mike Zwerin, 1999).

This is pretty insulting to those trombonists who preceded him, who had 
no difficulty negotiating their instruments to express their ideas and 
feelings. Players like Miff Mole, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey, Joe 
Nanton, J.C.Higginbotham, Dickie Wells, Floyd O'Brien, Al Leopold, Lou 
McGarity, Jack Jenney, Bennie Morton etc. gave no hint of strain in 
their playing. In other words, their technique was up to the task of 
expressing what they had to say.

While I like some of Johnson's work, a lot of it leaves me cold. 
Although he wasn't a flashy player, he did seem to have more technique 
than he really needed. A couple of other players who came on the scene 
about the same time as Johnson--Bill Harris and Bennie Green--had 
buckets' full of ideas. I suppose he wanted to develop sufficient 
technique to keep up with the other boppers, but faster doesn't 
necessarily mean better. His expressiveness was in inverse proportion to 
his technique.

Let's not make this a "shopping list" of trombonists I've omitted--they 
were included as examples, not as a definitive list.

      Julian Vein