John Fedchock: Justifiably J.J.

Among jazz trombonists with a sense of history, the name J.J. Johnson is spoken with an admiration that borders on reverence. Johnson was a pacesetter, a creative and articulate slideman and improviser who, either alone or with sometime partner Kai Winding, held the keys to the trombone kingdom from the early 1940s until his retirement more than half a century later. In the early '40s, Johnson brought the trombone—long associated with swing and Dixieland bands—forward into the bop world of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and their kin. As Gillespie once said of him, "I've always known that the trombone could be played different, that somebody would catch on one of these days. Man, you're elected."

John Fedchock is a contemporary trombonist who has taken Johnson's remarkable legacy and run with it. When the chance came to mark the hundredth anniversary of J.J.'s birth in his hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana, at the city's celebrated nightspot, The Jazz Kitchen, it was one that Fedchock could not pass up. Although the live quartet session was taped by the club's recording engineer, New Yorker Fedchock and his teammates (all of whom are Indiana-based) had no idea that the purpose might be to produce an album, and so, as he writes in his eloquent liner notes, "everyone let loose from beginning to end. That unbridled energy is strikingly apparent throughout this recording."

Indeed it is. This is a radiant and swinging concert wherein Fedchock proves time and again that he is a worthy heir to Johnson's lofty crown. Although the style and sound are far removed from Johnson's, Fedchock has a strong and expressive voice of his own, and he conveys a technical proficiency that is remarkably close to the master of them all, the incomparable Frank Rosolino. That superb technique is displayed fully on the spunky curtain-raiser, Johnson's "Naptown U.S.A." (based on "Back Home in Indiana") and elsewhere, especially the bright and lyrical "Say When" (a close cousin of the Matt Dennis standard, "It's You or No One") and the fast-moving finale, "Ten 85." Seven of the concert's eight numbers were written by Johnson (the outlier is Manny Albam's luminous and engaging "Lullaby of Jazztown").

"My goal," Fedchock writes, "was not only to celebrate J.J. the player, but also the composer, so I wanted to showcase compositions from his albums that have always resonated with me."

Fedchock and his relatively unknown but no less agile teammates dig in hard and wrest the most charm and substance possible from every number. Besides lending Fedchock tireless support, pianist Steve Allee, bassist Jeremy Allen and drummer Sean Dobbins are splendid soloists who never fail to please whenever their name is called. The soulful "Lament" is perhaps Johnson's best-known composition. Others heard here are "Short Cake," "Kenya" and "Minor Mist." Fedchock and Co. handily nail everyone, making Justifiably J.J. a memorable concert experience as well as an impressive addition to the library of any modern jazz enthusiast.