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- Verified Buyer
I had the pleasure of catching Norman Granz' musical circus, Jazz at the Philharmonic, and the segment featuring just Stan and J. J. on the front-line was the most cohesive set of the night. This CD collects two of the concerts from 1957--the first from Chicago's Opera House, the second from Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. As the preceding reviewer notes (apparently as a negative), there is some repetition in the repertory. Who's complaining? The CD contains 73 minutes of playing time, two of the repeats are blues, the instrumentalists are equally inspired and fresh on both occasions, and the Chicago set is recorded in stereo whereas the L. A. set is in mono. (Guess which sounds best--and by a wide margin! So much for old notions of progress.)There are so many great trombonists, and with the exception of the pro-active Steve Turre and Robin Eubanks, none are being recorded or heard from much these days. Perhaps the reason is J. J. He's still the hippest trombonist who ever lived, with more than enough technique, matched with incisive articulations and bracing power, to preach a moving sermon every time let alone eclipse if not blow away the equally gifted Getz. (To be fair, Getz' solo on the Rodgers and Hart ballad "It Never Entered My Mind" is the best recorded version I've ever heard by an instrumentalist.)This is the real thing. Jazz in the moment. Most of the tunes recorded for the first time by both musicians. In the liner notes Phil Schaap makes it sound as though the combination of Johnson and Getz was a unique occasion, but I have at least two JATP LPs featuring the same pair on tunes that aren't part of either of the two concerts on this disk.The house rhythm section on both occasions is Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, and Connie Kay, with Brown's bass more audible than was often the case on recordings of this period. As for the two peerless principals, besides the solos, dig the quick exchanges and collaborative polyphony. This is close to being an "essential" recording, overdue for a reissue (I wouldn't hold my breath, though).
