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

[Erwin Kluwer]

 " His expressiveness was in inverse proportion to
his technique."

That's just your opinion....

Erwin


On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 7:12 PM, Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>wrote:

> "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
>
>
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