Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,464

This is the grave of J.J. Johnson.

Born in 1924 in Indianapolis, James Louis Johnson, or J.J. as he would be known throughout his life, started playing music as a child. He picked up the piano when he was 9, started messing around with other instruments, and when he was 14, settled on the trombone as his favorite. Good call. He started playing professionally in Clarence Love’s band in 1941 and then with Snookum Russell in 1942. Fats Navarro turned him onto Lester Young and suggested that he try to see what he could do with such a technique of the trombone. Johnson was down for it. It worked very well. He got a gig in Benny Carter’s orchestra in 1942 and played with the great bandleader for the next three years. The earliest recordings of Johnson are in this period. Then he joined Count Basie in 1945.

But this was a tough time for the trombone players. Initially, the bebop movement did not look too kindly on the trombone. A lot of the early bebop guys believed that the trombone was basically too slow–that it could not keep up with the rapid rhythmic changes. It was Johnson who proved that to be total bs. Johnson became the preferred trombonist of the bebop period after World War II. He joined Illinois Jacquet’s band for awhile. He also started his own group that included Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, and Bud Powell. Oh is that all. No talent in that one! He had all sorts of bands and did all sorts of side work for the next several years, including international trips. He played with Miles Davis and Miles recorded some of his tunes, but in the 50s, Miles was still just one of a bunch of really good players. He also pioneered the still very rare two trombone band with Kai Winding in 1954 and they played together off and on until Winding died in 80s.

The peak of Johnson as bandleader was in the mid to late 50s. As was common, these bands were not at all stable, but taken as a whole, Johnson played with a lot of the greats in his bands. Among the people who played with him in these years include Elvin Jones, Clifford Jordan, Nat Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, Paul Chambers, and Max Roach.

Johnson also stood up for musicians rights. He was one of three musicians who filed the lawsuit that ended the New York City Cabaret Card system that allowed the city to police musicians. It was this system that forced Charlie Parker out of the clubs for his drug use and Lenny Bruce out for his obscenity charges. Johnson had his card revoked and he sued. He got the card back and this hastened the demise of the system, though the system did not end entirely until 1967.

By the mid 60s, Johnson’s career was on the downswing. This was the case with a lot of bop guys. He didn’t really make the transition either to the avant-garde like Coltrane or to electric music like Miles. He mostly played in big bands and didn’t record an album with his own road band for nearly 20 years. He did become a master of composition by the mid 60s and sometimes even classical symphonies started playing his compositions. He never gave up music, but for awhile there, the popular audiences gave up on him and musicians of his ilk. He didn’t even play live in the 70s and 80s except for just a couple of shows in Japan and Europe. He moved to Hollywood and did a bunch of soundtrack work, both for the movies and for TV. Gotta make a living.

Johnson did however have a late life revival. He had a bunch of gigs at the Village Vanguard in 1987 and by then there were a lot of people who wanted to hear these living legends once again. He recorded some albums at this time too. However, he took a few years to take care of his invalid wife after she had a stroke. After she died in 1991, he workers for the rest of his life. He led a bunch of bands, got nominated for a few Grammys, and started experimenting with electronics and MIDI. He retired from live performing in 1996 and dedicated the rest of his life to his MIDI stuff.

In 2000, Johnson was diagnosed with prostrate cancer. He worked through it for a bit, but then committed suicide in 2001. I am not 100% sure this was in response to dying of cancer, but I think it was. He was 77 years old.

Let’s listen to some J.J. Johnson:

That ought to keep you busy for awhile!

J.J. Johnson is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana.

If you would like this series to visit other great jazz trombonists, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. I plan on visiting some quality musicians on my upcoming Los Angeles trip and I very much appreciate the help you all have given this week as I work toward covering the costs of this trip. Jack Teagarden is buried in Hollywood and Kid Ory is in Culver City, California and I will try to visit them with some assistant. Get your jazz graves here! Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.