Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. known as Yardbird and Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Parker was a influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique and advanced harmonies. Parker was a blazingly fast virtuoso, he introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, chord substitutions, his tone ranged from clean and penetrating to somber. Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career on the road with Jay McShann. This, the shortened form "Bird", continued to be used for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology", "Bird Gets the Worm", "Bird of Paradise". Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer. Charles Parker Jr. was born in Kansas City, Kansas at 852 Freeman Avenue, raised in Kansas City, Missouri near Westport and – in high school – near 15th and Olive Street.
He was the only child of Charles Parker and Adelaide "Addie" Bailey, of mixed Choctaw and African American background. He attended Lincoln High School in September 1934, but withdrew in December 1935, just before joining the local musicians' union and to pursue his musical career full-time, his childhood sweetheart and future wife, Rebecca Ruffin, graduated from Lincoln High School in June 1935. Parker began playing the saxophone at age 11, at age 14 he joined his high school band where he studied under Bandmaster Alonzo Lewis, his mother purchased a new alto saxophone around the same time. His father, Charles Sr. was required to travel for work, but provided some musical influence because he was a pianist and singer on the T. O. B. A. Circuit, he became a Pullman waiter or chef on the railways. Parker's mother Addie worked nights at the local Western Union office, his biggest influence at that time was a young trombone player named Robert Simpson, who taught him the basics of improvisation. In the mid-1930s, Parker began to practice diligently.
During this period he mastered improvisation and developed some of the ideas that led to the development of Bebop. In an interview with Paul Desmond, he said that he spent three to four years practicing up to 15 hours a day. Bands led by Count Basie and Bennie Moten influenced Parker, he played with local bands in jazz clubs around Kansas City, where he perfected his technique, with the assistance of Buster Smith, whose dynamic transitions to double and triple time influenced Parker's developing style. In late spring 1936, Parker played at a jam session at the Reno Club in Kansas City, his attempt to improvise failed. This prompted Jo Jones, the drummer for Count Basie's Orchestra, to contemptuously throw a cymbal at his feet as a signal to leave the stage. However, rather than discouraging Parker, the incident caused him to vow to practice harder, turned out to be a seminal moment in the young musician's career when he returned as a new man a year later. Parker proposed to his wife, Rebecca Ruffin, the same year and the two were married on July 25, 1936.
In the fall of 1936, Parker traveled with a band from Kansas City to the Ozarks for the opening of Clarence Musser's Tavern south of Eldon, Missouri. Along the way, the caravan of musicians had a car accident and Parker broke three ribs and fractured his spine; the accident led to Parker's ultimate troubles with pain killers and opioids heroin. Parker struggled with drug use for the rest of his life. Despite his near death experience on the way to the Ozarks in 1936, Parker returned to the area in 1937 where he spent some serious time woodshedding and developing his sound. In 1938 Parker joined pianist Jay McShann's territory band; the band toured other venues of the southwest, as well as Chicago and New York City. Parker made his professional recording debut with McShann's band. In 1939 Parker moved to New York City, he held several other jobs as well. He worked for nine dollars a week as a dishwasher at Jimmie's Chicken Shack, where pianist Art Tatum performed, it was in 1939 in New York that Parker had his musical breakthrough that had begun in 1937 in the Missouri Ozarks.
Playing through the changes on Cherokee, Parker discovered a new musical vocabulary and sound that forever shifted the course of music history. In 1940, he returned to Kansas City to perform with Jay McShann and to attend the funeral of his father, Charles, Sr, he played Fairyland Park in the summer with McShann's band at 75th and Prospect for all-white audiences. The up-side of the summer was his introduction to Dizzy Gillespie by Step Buddy Anderson near 19th and Vine in the summer of 1940. After the summer season at Fairyland, Parker left with McShann's band for gigs in the region. On a trip to Omaha he earned his nickname from McShann and the band after an incident with a chicken and the tour bus. In 1942 Parker left McShann's band and played for one year with Earl Hines, whose band included Dizzy Gillespie, who played with Parker as a duo; this period is undocumented, due to the strike of 1942–1943 by the American Federation of Musicians, during which time few professional recordings were made.
Parker joined a group of young musicians, played in after-hours clubs in Harlem, such as Clark Monroe's Uptown House. These young iconoclasts included Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, guitarist Charlie Christian, drummer Kenny Clarke; the beboppers' attitude was summed up in a famous quotation attributed to Monk by Mary Lou Williams
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz double bassist, pianist and bandleader. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history, with a career spanning three decades and collaborations with other jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Dannie Richmond, Herbie Hancock. Mingus' compositions continue to be played by contemporary musicians ranging from the repertory bands Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, Mingus Orchestra, to the high school students who play the charts and compete in the Charles Mingus High School Competition. In 1993, The Library of Congress acquired Mingus's collected papers—including scores, sound recordings and photos—in what they described as "the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jazz in the Library's history". Charles Mingus was born in Arizona, his father, Charles Mingus Sr. was a sergeant in the U. S. Army. Mingus was raised in the Watts area of Los Angeles.
His maternal grandfather was a Chinese British subject from Hong Kong, his maternal grandmother was an African-American from the southern United States. Mingus was the third great-grandson of the family's founding patriarch who was, by most accounts, a German immigrant, his ancestors included German American, African American, Native American. In Mingus's autobiography Beneath the Underdog his mother was described as "the daughter of an Englishman and a Chinese woman", his father was the son "of a black farm worker and a Swedish woman". Charles Mingus Sr. claims to have been raised by his mother and her husband as a white person until he was fourteen, when his mother revealed to her family that the child's true father was a black slave, after which he had to run away from his family and live on his own. The autobiography doesn't confirm whether Charles Mingus Sr. or Mingus himself believed this story was true, or whether it was an embellished version of the Mingus family's lineage. His mother allowed only church-related music in their home, but Mingus developed an early love for other music Duke Ellington.
He studied trombone, cello, although he was unable to follow the cello professionally because, at the time, it was nearly impossible for a black musician to make a career of classical music, the cello was not yet accepted as a jazz instrument. Despite this, Mingus was still attached to the cello. In Beneath the Underdog, Mingus states that he did not start learning bass until Buddy Collette accepted him into his swing band under the stipulation that he be the band's bass player. Due to a poor education, the young Mingus could not read musical notation enough to join the local youth orchestra; this had a serious impact on his early musical experiences, leaving him feeling ostracized from the classical music world. These early experiences, in addition to his lifelong confrontations with racism, were reflected in his music, which focused on themes of racism and justice. Much of the cello technique he learned was applicable to double bass when he took up the instrument in high school, he studied for five years with Herman Reinshagen, principal bassist of the New York Philharmonic, compositional techniques with Lloyd Reese.
Throughout much of his career, he played a bass made in 1927 by the German maker Ernst Heinrich Roth. Beginning in his teen years, Mingus was writing quite advanced pieces. A number of them were recorded in 1960 with conductor Gunther Schuller, released as Pre-Bird, referring to Charlie "Bird" Parker. Mingus gained a reputation as a bass prodigy, his first major professional job was playing with former Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard. He toured with Louis Armstrong in 1943, by early 1945 was recording in Los Angeles in a band led by Russell Jacquet, which included Teddy Edwards, Maurice Simon, Bill Davis, Chico Hamilton, in May that year, in Hollywood, again with Teddy Edwards, in a band led by Howard McGhee, he played with Lionel Hampton's band in the late 1940s. A popular trio of Mingus, Red Norvo and Tal Farlow in 1950 and 1951 received considerable acclaim, but Mingus's race caused problems with club owners and he left the group. Mingus was a member of Ellington's band in 1953, as a substitute for bassist Wendell Marshall.
Mingus's notorious temper led to his being one of the few musicians fired by Ellington, after an on-stage fight between Mingus and Juan Tizol. In the early 1950s, before attaining commercial recognition as a bandleader, Mingus played gigs with Charlie Parker, whose compositions and improvisations inspired and influenced him. Mingus considered Parker the greatest genius and innovator in jazz history, but he had a love-hate relationship with Parker's legacy. Mingus blamed the Parker mythology for a derivative crop of pretenders to Parker's throne, he was conflicted and sometimes disgusted by Parker's self-destructive habits and the romanticized lure of drug addiction they offered to other jazz musicians. In response to the many sax players who imitated Parker, Mingus titled a song, "If Charlie Parker were a Gunslinger, There'd be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats". Mingus was married four tim
A Night at the Village Vanguard
A Night at the Village Vanguard is a live album by tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins released on Blue Note Records in 1958. It was recorded at the Village Vanguard in New York City in November 1957 from three sets, two in the evening and one in the afternoon with sidemen. For the afternoon set, Rollins played with Donald Bailey on Pete LaRoca on drums; the Allmusic review by Scott Yanow states: "This CD is magical. Sonny Rollins, one of jazz's great tenors, is heard at his peak... Not only did Rollins have a distinctive sound, but his use of time, his sly wit, his boppish but unpredictable style were his own by 1957." Music critic Robert Christgau praised the album, writing: "Rollins is charged with venturing far out from these tunes without severing the harmonic moorings secured by a piano. He does it again and again – but not without a certain cost in ebullience and fullness of breath. Impressive always, fun in passing, his improvisations are what avant-garde jazz is for." The album was identified by Scott Yanow in his Allmusic essay "Hard Bop" as one of the 17 Essential Hard Bop Recordings.
The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave it a maximum four stars plus crown, concluding that "these are records which demand a place in any collection". On September 14, 1999, the remastered album was reissued by Blue Note as part of its Rudy Van Gelder series. Expanded to two compact discs, it included all the available recordings from the November 3 date. All tracks from the evening sets except. All tracks from the evening sets except. Sonny Rollins — tenor saxophone Wilbur Ware — double bass Donald Bailey — double bass on afternoon set Elvin Jones — drums Pete LaRoca — drums on afternoon setTechnicalRudy Van Gelder - recording Reid Miles - cover design Francis Wolff - cover photography
Drum kit
A drum kit — called a drum set, trap set, or drums — is a collection of drums and other percussion instruments cymbals, which are set up on stands to be played by a single player, with drumsticks held in both hands, the feet operating pedals that control the hi-hat cymbal and the beater for the bass drum. A drum kit consists of a mix of drums and idiophones – most cymbals, but can include the woodblock and cowbell. In the 2000s, some kits include electronic instruments. Both hybrid and electronic kits are used. A standard modern kit, as used in popular music and taught in music schools, contains: A snare drum, mounted on a stand, placed between the player's knees and played with drum sticks A bass drum, played by a pedal operated by the right foot, which moves a felt-covered beater One or more toms, played with sticks or brushes A hi-hat, played with the sticks and closed with left foot pedal One or more cymbals, mounted on stands, played with the sticksAll of these are classified as non-pitched percussion, allowing the music to be scored using percussion notation, for which a loose semi-standardized form exists for both the drum kit and electronic drums.
The drum kit is played while seated on a stool known as a throne. While many instruments like the guitar or piano are capable of performing melodies and chords, most drum kits are unable to achieve this as they produce sounds of indeterminate pitch; the drum kit is a part of the standard rhythm section, used in many types of popular and traditional music styles, ranging from rock and pop to blues and jazz. Other standard instruments used in the rhythm section include the piano, electric guitar, electric bass, keyboards. Many drummers extend their kits from this basic configuration, adding more drums, more cymbals, many other instruments including pitched percussion. In some styles of music, particular extensions are normal. For example, some rock and heavy metal drummers make use of double bass drums, which can be achieved with either a second bass drum or a remote double foot pedal; some progressive drummers may include orchestral percussion such as gongs and tubular bells in their rig. Some performers, such as some rockabilly drummers, play small kits that omit elements from the basic setup.
Before the development of the drum set and cymbals used in military and orchestral music settings were played separately by different percussionists. In the 1840s, percussionists began to experiment with foot pedals as a way to enable them to play more than one instrument, but these devices would not be mass-produced for another 75 years. By the 1860s, percussionists started combining multiple drums into a set; the bass drum, snare drum and other percussion instruments were all struck with hand-held drum sticks. Drummers in musical theater shows and stage shows, where the budget for pit orchestras was limited, contributed to the creation of the drum set by developing techniques and devices that would enable them to cover the roles of multiple percussionists. Double-drumming was developed to enable one person to play the bass and snare with sticks, while the cymbals could be played by tapping the foot on a "low-boy". With this approach, the bass drum was played on beats one and three. While the music was first designed to accompany marching soldiers, this simple and straightforward drumming approach led to the birth of ragtime music when the simplistic marching beats became more syncopated.
This resulted in dance feel. The drum set was referred to as a "trap set", from the late 1800s to the 1930s, drummers were referred to as "trap drummers". By the 1870s, drummers were using an "overhang pedal". Most drummers in the 1870s preferred to do double drumming without any pedal to play multiple drums, rather than use an overhang pedal. Companies patented their pedal systems such as Dee Dee Chandler of New Orleans 1904–05. Liberating the hands for the first time, this evolution saw the bass drum played with the foot of a standing percussionist; the bass drum became the central piece around which every other percussion instrument would revolve. William F. Ludwig, Sr. and his brother, Theobald Ludwig, founded the Ludwig & Ludwig Co. in 1909 and patented the first commercially successful bass drum pedal system, paving the way for the modern drum kit. Wire brushes for use with drums and cymbals were introduced in 1912; the need for brushes arose due to the problem of the drum sound overshadowing the other instruments on stage.
Drummers began using metal fly swatters to reduce the volume on stage next to the other acoustic instruments. Drummers could still play the rudimentary snare figures and grooves with brushes that they would play with drumsticks. By World War I, drum kits were marching band-style military bass drums with many percussion items suspended on and around them. Drum kits became a central part of jazz Dixieland; the modern drum kit was developed in the vaudeville era during the 1920s in New Orleans. In 1917, a New Orleans band called "The Original Dixieland Jazz Band " recorded jazz tunes that became hits all o
Gil Evans
Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans was a Canadian jazz pianist, arranger and bandleader. He is recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role in the development of cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, jazz fusion, he is best known for his acclaimed collaborations with Miles Davis. Gil Evans was born to Ian Ernest Green and Margaret Julia McConnachy on May 13, 1912. Named Ian Ernest Gilmore Green, he would change his name from Green to Evans, taking the name of his step-father, his father was a doctor and his mother was a homemaker and he had two siblings and Montgomery. From a young age, Evans moved many times, he graduated from Modesto Junior College. Evans remained a Canadian citizen. After 1946, he lived and worked in New York City, living for many years at Westbeth Artists Community. Between 1941 and 1948, Evans worked as an arranger for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. Early in his career, his arrangements were such a challenge to musicians that bassist Bill Crow recalled that bandleader Thornhill would bring out Evans’s arrangements "when he wanted to punish the band."
Evans' modest basement apartment behind a New York City Chinese laundry soon became a meeting place for musicians looking to develop new musical styles outside of the dominant bebop style of the day. Those present included the leading bebop performer, Charlie Parker, as well as Gerry Mulligan and John Carisi. In 1948, with Miles Davis and others, collaborated on a band book for a nonet; these ensembles, larger than the trio-to-quintet "combos", but smaller than the "big bands" which were on the brink of economic unviability, allowed arrangers to have a larger palette of colors by using French horns and tuba. Claude Thornhill had employed hornist John Graas in 1942, composer-arranger Bob Graettinger had scored for horns and tubas with the Stan Kenton orchestra, but the "Kenton sound" was in the context of a dense orchestral wall of sound that Evans avoided; the Miles Davis-led group was booked for a week at the "Royal Roost" as an intermission group on the bill with the Count Basie Orchestra.
Capitol Records recorded 12 numbers by the nonet at three sessions in 1949 and 1950. These recordings were reissued on a 1957 Miles Davis LP titled Birth of the Cool. While Davis was under contract with Columbia Records, producer George Avakian suggested that Davis could work with any of several arrangers. Davis chose Evans; the three albums that resulted from the collaboration are Miles Ahead and Bess, Sketches of Spain. Another collaboration from this period, Quiet Nights was issued against the wishes of Davis, who broke with his then-producer Teo Macero for a time as a result. Although these four records were marketed under Davis's name, Evans's contribution was as important as Davis's, their work coupled Evans's classic big band jazz stylings and arrangements with Davis's solo playing. Evans contributed behind the scenes to Davis' classic quintet albums of the 1960s; the demands of the score for Porgy and Bess were legendary, from the first note for the lead trumpet. The limited time allotted for rehearsals revealed that the ability to read such a challenging score was not consistent among jazz musicians, there are many audible errors.
Yet the recording is now regarded by many as one of the greatest reinterpretations of Gershwin's music in any musical style, because Evans and Davis were each devoted to going outside the "mainstream" of commercial expectations for jazz musicians. Evans was a great influence on Davis's interest in "non-jazz" music orchestral music. Evans's orchestral scores from the Porgy and Bess sessions were found to be incomplete, Quincy Jones and Gil Goldstein attempted to reconstruct these for Miles Davis's final 1991 concerts at Montreux, recorded as Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux. Davis had relented after years of refusing to revisit this material, but he was ill, recovering from pneumonia, trumpeter Wallace Roney, mentored by Davis, covered many of the challenging passages. Davis died before the release of the album. From 1957 onwards Evans recorded albums under his own name. Tubist Bill Barber and trumpeter Louis Mucci from Thornhill's band were both stalwarts in Evans's early ensembles, with Mucci finding a spot on nearly every pre1980s Evans recording.
Among the featured soloists on these records were Lee Konitz, Jimmy Cleveland, Steve Lacy, Johnny Coles and Cannonball Adderley. In 1965 he arranged. Evans was explicitly influenced by Spanish composers Manuel de Falla and Joaquín Rodrigo, by other Latin and Brazilian music, as well as by German expatriate Kurt Weill, his arrangements of pieces well known to some listeners from their original cabaret, concert hall or Broadway stage arrangements, revealed aspects of the music in a wholly original way. Sometimes in an unexpected contrast to the original atmosphere of the piece, sometimes taking a dark ballad such as Weill's "Barbara Song" into an darker place; the personnel list for The Individualism of Gil Evans, not only features Bill Barber and hornists James Buffington and Julius Watkins, but each section features the cream of the younger musicians who were making their names in jazz. The presence of four of the mo
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147, reflecting an increase of 944 from the 26,203 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 1,353 from the 24,850 counted in the 1990 Census. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of Englewood Township. With the creation of the City of Englewood, Englewood Township was dissolved. An earlier referendum on March 10, 1896, was declared unconstitutional. Englewood Township, the city's predecessor, is believed to have been named in 1859 for the Engle family; the community had been called the "English Neighborhood", as the first English-speaking settlement on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River after New Netherland was annexed by England in 1664, though other sources mention the Engle family and the forested areas of the community as the derivation of the name.
Other sources indicate that the name is derived from "wood ingle", meaning "woody nook", or that the name was coined anew. Numerous other settlements in the United States were named for Englewood as settlement in North America expanded westward. J. Wyman Jones is credited with convincing residents to choose Englewood for the city's name when it was incorporated over such alternatives as "Brayton" and "Paliscena". Englewood, like the rest of New Jersey, was populated by Lenape Native Americans prior to European colonization; the Lenape who lived in the Englewood region were of the "turtle clan" which used a stylized turtle as its symbol, but little else is known of those inhabitants. When Henry Hudson sailed up what would become known as the Hudson River in 1607, he claimed the entirety of the watershed of the river, including Englewood, for the Netherlands, making the future region of Englewood a part of New Netherland. However, the region remained unsettled under Dutch rule as the Dutch did little to encourage settlement north of modern Hudson County, as the imposing New Jersey Palisades blocked expansion on the west bank of the Hudson.
In 1664, after the Dutch surrendered all of New Netherland to England, the rate of settlement picked up. The English were generous with land grants, many families, not only English but Dutch and Huguenot, settled the area, which during the colonial era was known as the English Neighborhood. Street names in Englewood still recall the relative diversity of its earliest settlers. From 1906 until March 16, 1907, when it burned down, Englewood was the site of Upton Sinclair's socialist-inflected intentional community, the Helicon Home Colony. Associated with the project were Sinclair Lewis. Direct distance dialing, which allowed callers to reach other users outside their local calling area without operator assistance, was introduced to the public in Englewood. On November 10, 1951, Englewood Mayor M. Leslie Denning made the first customer-dialed long distance call, to Mayor Frank Osborne of Alameda, California; as of that date, customers of the Englewood 3, Englewood 4 and Teaneck 7 exchanges, who could dial some exchanges in the New York City area, were able to dial 11 cities across the United States by dialing the three-digit area code preceding the local number.
Two years after his graduation from Fordham University, Vince Lombardi began his football coaching career at Englewood's St. Cecilia High School, which closed in 1986. Sites in the city listed on the National Register of Historic Places include: John G. Benson House Thomas Demarest House Garret Lydecker House St. Paul's Episcopal Church Peter Westervelt House and Barn According to the United States Census Bureau, Englewood had a total area of 4.937 square miles, including 4.914 square miles of land and 0.023 square miles of water. Unincorporated communities and place names located or within the city include Highwood; the city borders the Bergen County municipalities of Bergenfield, Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, Leonia and Tenafly. As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 27,147 people, 10,057 households, 6,788.475 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,524.6 per square mile. There were 10,695 housing units at an average density of 2,176.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 45.28% White, 32.58% Black or African American, 0.54% Native American, 8.10% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 9.73% from other races, 3.72% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 27.48% of the population. There were 10,057 households out of which 28.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.1% were married couples living together, 17.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 32.5% were non-families. 27.3% of all households were made up of individuals, 9.6% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.24. In the city, the population was spread out with 22.2% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 28.9% from 25 to 44, 27.0% from 45 to 64, 14.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.9 years. For every 100 females there were 90.0 males
J. J. Johnson
James Louis Johnson was an American jazz trombonist and arranger. Johnson was one of the earliest trombonists to embrace bebop. After studying the piano beginning at age 9, Johnson decided to play trombone at the age of 14. In 1941, he began his professional career with Clarence Love, played with Snookum Russell in 1942. In Russell's band he met the trumpeter Fats Navarro, who influenced him to play in the style of the tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Johnson played in Benny Carter's orchestra between 1942 and 1945, made his first recordings in 1942 under Carter's leadership, recording his first solo in October 1943. In 1944, he took part in the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert, presented in Los Angeles and organized by Norman Granz. In 1945 he joined the big band of Count Basie and recording with him until 1946. While the trombone was featured prominently in dixieland and swing music, it fell out of favor among bebop musicians because instruments with valves and keys were believed to be more suited to bebop's rapid tempos and demand for technical mastery.
In 1946, bebop co-inventor Dizzy Gillespie encouraged the young trombonist's development with the comment, "I've always known that the trombone could be played different, that somebody'd catch on one of these days. Man, you're elected."After leaving Basie in 1946 to play in small bebop bands in New York clubs, Johnson toured in 1947 with Illinois Jacquet. During this period he began recording as a leader of small groups featuring Max Roach, Sonny Stitt and Bud Powell, he performed with Charlie Parker at the 17 December 1947 Dial Records session following Parker's release from Camarillo State Mental Hospital. In 1951, with bassist Oscar Pettiford and trumpeter Howard McGhee, Johnson toured the military camps of Japan and Korea before returning to the United States and taking a day job as a blueprint inspector. Johnson admitted he was still thinking of nothing but music during that time, indeed, his classic Blue Note Records recordings as both a leader and with Miles Davis date from this period.
Johnson's compositions "Enigma" and "Kelo" were recorded by Davis for Blue Note and Johnson was part of the Davis studio session band that recorded the jazz classic Walkin'. In 1954 producer Ozzie Cadena with Savoy Records, convinced Johnson to set up a combo with trombonist Kai Winding: the "Jay and Kai Quintet"; the trombone styles and personalities of the two musicians, although different, blended so well that the pairing, which lasted until August 1956, was a huge success both musically and commercially. They toured U. S. nightclubs and recorded numerous albums before parting amicably, satisfied that they had explored their novel group. The duo reunited again in 1958 for a tour of the UK, an Impulse! studio album in 1960 and in 1968–1969. In January 1967, Johnson and Winding were in an all-star line-up backing Sarah Vaughan on her last sessions for Mercury Records, released as the album Sassy Swings Again, with three of the cuts, including Billy Strayhorn's "Take the "A" Train", being arranged by Johnson himself.
The duo made some jazz festival appearances in Japan in the early 1980s, the last shortly before Winding died in May 1983. Following the mid-1950s collaboration with Winding, J. J. Johnson began leading his own touring small groups for about 3 years, covering the United States, United Kingdom and Scandinavia; these groups included tenor saxophonists Bobby Jaspar and Clifford Jordan, cornetist Nat Adderley, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianists Tommy Flanagan and Cedar Walton, drummers Elvin Jones, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Roach. In 1957, he recorded the quartet albums First Place and Blue Trombone, with Flanagan, Paul Chambers and Roach, he toured with the Jazz at the Philharmonic show in 1957 and 1960, the first tour yielding a live album featuring Johnson and tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. In 1958–59 Johnson was one of three plaintiffs in a court case which hastened the abolition of the cabaret card system; this period overlaps with the beginnings of Johnson's serious forays into Third Stream music.
Periods of writing and recording his music would alternate with tours demanding attention to his playing. Following the six months he spent writing Perceptions, Johnson entered the studio for a date with André Previn's trio, they recorded an entire album of the music of Kurt Weill. The inventive arrangements and inspired playing of both stars on Andre Previn and J. J. Johnson Play'Mack The Knife' and Other Kurt Weill Songs bore out the producer's foresight, yet this recording was not released on CD until after his death. In 1962 Johnson toured for a number of months with Davis' sextet of that year, which went unrecorded. Johnson's 1963 solo album J. J.'s Broadway is an example of both his mature trombone style and sound, his arranging abilities. 1964 saw the recording of his last working band for a period of over 20 years – Proof Positive. Beginning in 1965 Johnson recorded a number of large group studio albums under his name, featuring many of his own compositions and arrangements; the late 1960s saw a radical downturn in the fortunes of many jazz musicians and Johnson was heard exclusively on big band-style studio records backing a single soloist.
From the mid-1950s, but the early 1960s on, Johnson dedicated more and more time to composition. He became an active contributor to the Third Stream movement in jazz, wrote a nu
