Jump to content

Budd Johnson


Chuck Nessa

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 78
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

FACT: ** I ** have the exact same panda shirt as Budd!

FACT: All the Budd & Earl lps are near-essential; everyone should have at least two.

FACT: Budd Johnson's son Budd Johnson Jr was doo-wop singer, percussionist, and a career criminal, did hard time for armed robbery.

FACT: Budd Johnson's grandson-- Budd Jr's son-- Albert Johnson, better known as Prodigy was one of the greatest rappers ever and is still among the most charismatic (he lost some of his virtuoso technique to age, illness-- esp. sickle cell anemia-- misdirection). See--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP0wsET8__Y

QUIZ: One free beer to any Organaut who recognizes the piano loop above without looking it up; this was a long-time mystery btw but it ** is ** by canonical jazz musician. (Thus it's not by always dull Jason Moran, the over-acclaimed woeful sap.)

BONUS 1: Prodigy's mother was Frances Collins, of later Crystals interest, no shit--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESvs4LDQ6cs

REM DOESN'T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE

BONUS 2: O.V. Wright did not die in vain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9tMscnqE90

Some of my favorite late period Budd Johnson is found on this one:

031119.jpg

edit - just checked and this is the same record that BeBop listed under a different title and label in post #6.

I'll second that. Great record! (I have that Black & Blue vinyl!

Edited by MomsMobley
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Budd Johnson can be heard to good advantage on Benny Carter's "Live And Well In Japan", a Pablo album of a 1977 live concert featuring (besides Carter and Johnson) Joe Newman, Cat Anderson, Britt Woodman, Cecil Payne, Nat Pierce, Mundell Lowe, George Duvivier and Harold Jones.

I see two albums with that title and different tracklists - can someone explain ... :unsure:

210YR5H954L._SL500_AA240_.jpg513-IU8sE0L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

What are the (different) tracklists on these albums? As far as I see these are just two different editions of the same album.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad I bought any of the JPJ Quartet LPs when I spotted one of them - a very underrated band, playing excellently and not simply a retro swing group, much more than that. These guys were playing!

JPJ-Quartet-JPJ-Quartet-453657.jpg

Same for any Hines Quartet recordings with Johnson.

The complete(?) JPJ Quartet recordings (studio and live) have been (re)issued on Storyville.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What are the (different) tracklists on these albums? As far as I see these are just two different editions of the same album.

210YR5H954L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

1. Blue Nun

2. Nermus

3. Village Blues

4. Azure

5. Coming Home

6. Concepts In Blue

7. Mohawk

... but I also saw this with the same tracklist as the other:

513-IU8sE0L._SL500_.jpg

1. Squatty Roo

2. Tribute to Louis Armstrong: When It's Sleepy Time Down South/Confe ...

3. Them There Eyes

4. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What are the (different) tracklists on these albums? As far as I see these are just two different editions of the same album.

513-IU8sE0L._SL500_.jpg

1. Squatty Roo

2. Tribute to Louis Armstrong: When It's Sleepy Time Down South/Confe ...

3. Them There Eyes

4. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

That is the one I recommended.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haven't heard it for a good while, but my memory is that the Riverside four-trumpet date was a classic example of a less than it should have been/could have been Orrin Keepnews production.

Edit: I see now that the date was Cannonball's idea but don't know whether Keepnews was in the studio. Listening to a track on the Internet, I hear what I recall hearing before -- rather airless too close-up sound (on Budd and bassist Joe Benjamin in particular) and less than ideal drum work from Herbie Lovelle.

Spinning this right now - I very much prefer that close recording to any artificial reverb etc. .... the band is standing right in my living room. Lovelle ist staying out of the way, that's all, IMHO ... I like this album a lot. They audibly had a ball recording it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New York in the '70s was kind of amazing - when I think of all the musicians who were still around, like Dickey Wells, Earl Warren, Eddie Durham, Sam Price, yikes, it was like a moveable enclyclopedia of jazz. I was at Jimmy Ryan's one night in the middle '70s, maybe, and who walked by but Budd Johnson with his friend Al Sears. Wish I had a video cam in those days.

Yeah, I saw Buck Clayton when he was still playing trumpet at a midtown New Orleans-style restaurant called Crawdaddy. And the one time I saw Jo Jones was in '77 at the West End.

Allen, did you go to the piano places on Bleecker? Frank Kimbrough told me he used to play at the Surf Maid. I don't remember him, but I did see Joanne Brackeen and Jill McManus there, and lots of the great but virtually unknown Lance Hayward at the Village Corner. In those days you could sit at the bar at the The Top of the Gate all night for no cover (for the likes of Mingus and Blakey) and get buybacks every third or fourth drink. Thankfully, one could drink at 18 back then. And, boy did I drink.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

two part article on Budd Johnson by Frank Driggs (yeah, I know...) from Jazz Review (Nov 1960 / Jan 1961):

http://jazzstudiesonline.org/?q=node/1115

http://jazzstudiesonline.org/?q=node/1123

or straight to the PDFs if that's what you prefer:

http://www.jazzstudiesonline.org/files/JREV3.9FULL.pdf

http://www.jazzstudiesonline.org/files/JREV4.1Complete.pdf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That Quincy Jones 4 CD set recently issued has good sound, and enough Johnson solos to justify a purchase - if you want to know exactly how many solos there are, you will have to wait until this evening.

41Qb7ovJMML._SS500_.jpg

Turns out Johnson plays only on te first two discs, Paris, Belgium, and Gothenburg.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No one has mentioned Budd's "Off the Wall" 1964 release on Argo (rare! Japanese CD reissue).

Budd, tenor sax

Joe Newman,tp.

Al Dailey,p.

Richard Davis or George Duvivier,b.

Grady Tate,d.

This an excellent date, rather modern in feel, with great tenor playing, revealing all of Budd's special talents in one package.

My personal favorite. Highly recommended!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Listened to the weird Terry albuma again... I can kind of live with the tunes by now, and of course the solo work is as fine as is to be expected with such players involved!

The tunes really aren't much though... they don't swing, they're corny as hell... reminds me of the crap I had to play while in the army band...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No one has mentioned Budd's "Off the Wall" 1964 release on Argo (rare! Japanese CD reissue).

Budd, tenor sax

Joe Newman,tp.

Al Dailey,p.

Richard Davis or George Duvivier,b.

Grady Tate,d.

This an excellent date, rather modern in feel, with great tenor playing, revealing all of Budd's special talents in one package.

My personal favorite. Highly recommended!

this is a great date , I recently picked this up on LP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd love to hear that Argo w/Joe Newman!

But there's another Argo (721) that I'm spinning now:

PARG_721S__45644__01152009121833-1979.jpg

Novelty stuff, fer sure - but good fun! The band behind Budd's tenor is: Joe Venuto (mar/vib), Hank Jones (p), Everett Barksdale & Kenny Burrell (g), Milt Hinton (b), Osie Johnson (d), Willie Rodriguez (d).

The tracklist includes the theme from "Touchez pas au grisbi", "Under Paris Skies", and more similar fare... lovely!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 5 months later...

What are the (different) tracklists on these albums? As far as I see these are just two different editions of the same album.

210YR5H954L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

1. Blue Nun

2. Nermus

3. Village Blues

4. Azure

5. Coming Home

6. Concepts In Blue

7. Mohawk

... but I also saw this with the same tracklist as the other:

513-IU8sE0L._SL500_.jpg

1. Squatty Roo

2. Tribute to Louis Armstrong: When It's Sleepy Time Down South/Confe ...

3. Them There Eyes

4. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

The first track list is from another but unrelated Pablo album, namely J.J. Johnson's Concepts In Blue. The Johnson album was reissued in the OJC series as OJCCD-735-2 and the Carter album as OJCCD-736-2, so the close numbers are probably what has caused the mix-up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad I bought any of the JPJ Quartet LPs when I spotted one of them - a very underrated band, playing excellently and not simply a retro swing group, much more than that. These guys were playing!

JPJ-Quartet-JPJ-Quartet-453657.jpg

Same for any Hines Quartet recordings with Johnson.

The complete(?) JPJ Quartet recordings (studio and live) have been (re)issued on Storyville.

I used to catch the JPJ Quartet live a lot in NY back in the 70s. I have fond memories of Budd's ecstatic version of "If I Had You".

I've never heard a tenor sound like that, before or since.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...