Joe Bradford Quintet, ‘Tribute to J.J. Johnson’, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 27/10/2024.

Joe Bradford – trombone, Greg Sterland – tenor saxophone, Dorian Childs-Prophet – piano, Chris Jones – double bass, Paolo Adamo – drums

Black Mountain Jazz Club’s October event featured a Bristol based quintet led by trombonist Joe Bradford that presented a programme celebrating the centenary of the birth of the great American trombonist, composer, arranger and band leader J.J. Johnson (1924-2001).

Johnson’s musical career began in the late 1940s as the music of the swing era began to give way to bebop. Described by Bradford as “the musician who brought bebop to the trombone” Johnson was mentored by bebop pioneers such as trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist James Moody and he quickly emerged as the premier bebop trombonist. Bradford regards him as “the greatest trombone player who ever lived, he’s still influential for all of us”.

In addition to his formidable abilities as an instrumentalist Johnson was also a gifted composer, arranger and band leader and was hugely popular back in the 1950s, most notably when performing alongside fellow trombonist Kai Winding under the collective name Jay and Kai.

But Johnson was also an experimenter, seeking to expand the horizons of jazz and his recordings include albums made with large ensembles and with choirs, some of them almost orchestral in scope.

Johnson took a lengthy sabbatical for most of the 1970s, returning to active jazz service in the 1980s before making his final recording in 1996, five years prior to his death in 2001. Although relatively forgotten these days, certainly in comparison to musicians such as Miles Davies, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, Johnson is still highly regarded by jazz aficionados in general and trombonists in particular. One hundred years after his birth the time is right for a renewed interest in Johnson’s music and it’s to Bradford’s credit that tonight’s entertaining and educational performance brought the music of his trombone hero to an appreciative audience at Abergavenny.

Bradford himself studied at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz in the US where he was tutored by the leading American trombonists Steve Davis, Steve Turre and Elliot Mason. He has also studied with the UK’s own Dennis Rollins, himself a frequent visitor to Black Mountain Jazz.

Tonight’s show represented Bradford’s second visit to BMJ. In May 2023 he had been part of an ‘organ quintet’ led by trumpeter Jonny Bruce that had also included tonight’s saxophonist Greg Sterland. Hammond duties were handled by Guy Shotton with Alex Goodyear completing the group at the drum kit. My review of this quintet’s highly entertaining performance can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/jonny-bruce-organ-quintet-black-mountain-jazz-melville-centre-abergavenny-21-05-2023

Bradford’s other engagements include work with the Bristol based percussionist / vocalist Tammy Payne, the Latin / Brazilian inspired group Soma Soma and the jazz / classical / electronic large ensemble the Terra Coda Orchestra. He also helps to run the Bristol Jazz Workshop and is involved with a number of educational projects.

Bradford describes himself as being “firmly rooted in the bebop/hard bop tradition” and his love of the idiom, and of Johnson’s contribution to it, was obvious throughout the course of tonight’s performance. The programme featured a range of Johnson composed originals, Johnson arrangements of jazz standards and even a couple of Bradford originals written in the bebop idiom

The performance commenced with a version of the Johnson composition “Daylie Double”, a kind of swing / bebop crossover ushered in by unison trombone / tenor sax melody lines with fluent individual solos following from Bradford and Sterland. It was the second time that I had seen Sterland play during October. Earlier in the month he had co-led a quartet with pianist Sabina Turvey at Brecon Jazz Club, an impressive and highly enjoyable performance that is reviewed elsewhere on this site. Childs-Prophet, the only band member who was new to me, followed at the piano, while Adamo also enjoyed a drum feature towards the close. An enjoyable and invigorating start.

A second Johnson original, “Boneology”, was introduced by the trio of piano, bass and drums, with Bradford and Sterland subsequently joining to state the main theme. As Bradford later explained Johnson’s compositions typically feature fully written intros, thus the twin horn passages often featured passages of unison playing combined with moments of complex counterpoint, clearly designed to keep both musicians and listeners on their toes. Bradford and Sterland negotiated these with great skill throughout he course of the evening. Sterland took the first solo here, followed by Bradford on trombone and Childs-Prophet at the piano. This piece was the first to feature a solo from Chris Jones, the bassist’s sound combining a big, resonant tone with considerable dexterity.

There was a move away from the Johnson material with an arrangement of the Jerome Kern tune “Yesterdays” by the recently departed saxophonist, composer, arranger and bandleader Benny Golson (1929-2024). It appears on the 1959 album “Groovin’ With Golson”, a recording that features bebop’s other leading trombonist Curtis Fuller, another inspirational figure for Bradford. The tune was also recorded by Johnson, so its inclusion here was still relevant to the theme of the evening, especially as elements of Johnson’s arrangement were also included. Gently swinging rhythms underpinned a theme statement that again included elements of counterpoint, this leading to a powerful but fluent tenor sax solo from Sterland. This contrasted effectively with a more mellow trombone solo from Bradford that saw him softening the sound of his horn by deploying a beret as a mute, a technique also used by Johnson himself, although J.J. might have borrowed Dizzy’s hat for the purpose, rather than buying it off Amazon! Further solos followed from Childs-Prophet and Jones, before Adamo was featured in a series of exchanges with Bradford and Sterland. A restatement of the theme by the horns was followed by an unaccompanied muted trombone cadenza as the piece drew to a close.

Two Bradford originals rounded off the opening set. First we heard the contrafact “Chasin’”, Bradford’s variation on the Charlie Parker composition “Chasin’ The Bird”. Parker’s tune was a piece that was recorded by Johnson, with Bradford’s composition taking inspiration from this version. Trombone and tenor sax intertwined on the tricky, bebop inspired theme with lively solos following from Bradford, Childs-Prophet and Sterland. Double bass and drums were also featured, with Adamo again involved in a series of exchanges with Bradford and Sterland.

The final item in the first half came as something of a surprise. Despite its title Bradford’s composition “Heat” turned out to be a tender ballad, with Adamo sensitively deploying brushes throughout. Bradford’s trombone playing was notable for its rounded, mellow sound as he shared lyrical solos with Sterland on tenor and Childs-Prophet at the piano. This may have been an unusual way to conclude a set, but there was no doubting the beauty of the performance.

If anything the second set was to be even better with Bradford putting the focus even more firmly on Johnson. Rather than concentrating on Johnson’s most famous pieces (“Lament”, “Blue Trombone”, “Laura”), Bradford chose the ones that meant the most to him, beginning with the lively bebop tune “Viscosity”, a vehicle for solos from all the members of the quintet. A rousing and invigorating to blow away any interval cobwebs and really kick start the second half.

An arrangement of the much loved Hoagy Carmichael song “Stardust” began with an extended unaccompanied double bass introduction from Jones, with the bassist eventually joined by piano and brushed drums.  Following the entry of the horns there was an effective contrast between the fluent, rounded, velvety tone of Bradford’s trombone and the harder edged sound of Sterland’s tenor, with Childs-Prophet also featuring as a soloist. At the close of the performance Bradford informed us that Johnson had recorded his version of this piece for his 1959 album “Really Livin’”.

We now moved on to versions of two of Johnson’s more experimental pieces. First we heard “Barbara Song”, a Kurt Weill composition that forms part of “The Threepenny Opera”. This was sourced from the 1961 album “Andre Previn and J.J. Johnson play Kurt Weill” and it proved to be one of the evening’s most effective performances. It featured Bradford deploying an enormous bucket mute (as pictured in the image accompanying this article)  to soften the sound of his horn. I was intrigued by the device and asked about it after the show; made of aluminium it was surprisingly light in terms of weight, but very effective in terms of sound. Ushered in by a passage of unaccompanied piano this piece also included an atmospheric intro featuring the sounds of muted trombone, bowed bass, mallet rumbles and cymbal shimmers. A twin horn theme statement was then underpinned by the patter of hand drumming. Bradford’s subsequent solo was accompanied by Sterland’s sax commentary as Jones and Adamo established a gently loping, subtly Latin inflected groove that formed the basis for further solos from Sterland and Childs-Prophet.

From 1960 the album “Trombone and Voices”  saw Johnson accompanied by an orchestra and choir conducted by Frank De Vol. From this recording came a Johnson arrangement of the Vernon Duke song “What Is There To Say?”, which included solos from Bradford, Sterland, Childs-Prophet and Jones. Bradford informed us that this, like so many of Johnson’s compositions and arrangements, was difficult to play, thanks to its complex melodies and unorthodox harmonies.

The second set concluded much as it had begun with an arrangement of a classic Johnson bebop composition. Fast moving and hard swinging “Cube Steak” featured a tricky unison head and acted as the vehicle for punchy, hard hitting solos from Sterland, Bradford and Childs-Prophet, with the impressive Adamo delivering a full length drum solo, as opposed to ‘trading fours’ with the horns.

A blistering collective performances elicited cries for more and the band remained on stage to deliver an equally fast and tricky rendition of the rhythm changes tune “Wee”, written by the drummer Denzil Best (1917-65). Solos from Sterland and Bradford were followed by a dazzling excursion on piano from Childs-Prophet, arguably his best solo of the night. Adamo was also featured in a final series of exchanges with Bradford and Sterland.

An audience of around fifty at the Melville gave the quintet a terrific reception and all in all this was another highly successful event for Black Mountain Jazz. Themed or ‘tribute’ events such as this certainly help to boost audience numbers and tonight was no exception.

It was certainly good to be reminded of Johnson’s life and music and his huge contribution to the development of jazz. All the while Bradford’s very obvious love and admiration for his subject shone through and the evening proved to be both entertaining and educational. The standard of the playing was excellent all round, particularly in view of the fact that this was the first public outing for Bradford’s J.J. Johnson project. In terms of presentation the overall performance could have been a little slicker, but this is something that can be readily addressed with the next Johnson tribute gig scheduled at the Be-Bop Club at the Hen & Chicken in Bristol on 31st October 2024. This minor quibble aside this was an excellent evening of jazz. My thanks to Joe and Greg for speaking with me after the show and for clarifying a couple of queries regarding the set list.

COMMENTS;

From Alison Lyons via Facebook;

Thank you for the review, it always ‘solidifies’ the memory for me - much needed! And I always find out more and appreciate more.

 

 

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