Jazz Articles about Budd Johnson

About Budd Johnson

Album Review

Various Artists: The Birth of Bop

Read "The Birth of Bop" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
May 3, 2023

Someone famously called jazz the sound of surprise, but all too often, what is on offer is the dull hum of routine. Or something like that. This historic reissue is, however, anything but routine. This is not the first time that Teddy Reig's Savoy sides have been reissued (was he also the mysterious Buck Ram listed as producing one track?), but Craft Recordings took a lot of trouble to produce this very fine selection. If a listener were, ...

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Album Review

Budd Johnson: and the Four Brass Giants

by Derek Taylor
January 1, 2000

Put simply and succinctly this is a brass lover’s dream! The fact that you get the hard swinging and under-recognized Budd Johnson as part of the package makes it damn near essential. Originally the brainchild of Nat Adderly’s brother (“Cannonball” anyone?), Johnson took the arranger’s helm at an early stage of the project and devised a program of tunes with the preeminent four-pronged phalanx of soloists squarely in mind. He succeeds superlatively with an exciting blend of standards and originals ...