Listening to Prestige 418: Budd Johnson

Budd Johnson never lacked for work over a five-decade career. The gig he's best known for is Earl Hines, for whom he worked in the 1930-1940s, and then again in the 1960s-1970s, but when he wasn't with Hines he was with someone, from the Kansas City sound of Jesse Stone to the hot jazz of Louis Armstrong to the swing of Roy Eldridge, Ben Webster and Benny Carter. When the Count met the Duke, he was there. When Coleman Hawkins went to 52nd Street to help develop bebop, he was there, and he played with beboppers like Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Sonny Stitt, with soul jazzers like Cannonball Adderley and Jimmy McGriff, with jazz

singers like Carmen McRae and rhythm and blues singers like Ruth Brown And that just scratches the surface. For a few years in the late 1950s-early 1960s he recorded as a leader (just this one album for Prestige), and again for a few years in the early 1970s. He certainly had the stuff to step out front under his own name, as he proves here, and he shows his range and versatility, from the sweet sound of "Someone to Watch Over Me" to the hard-edged drive of his own "Uptown Manhattan" and "Downtown Manhattan," to the bebop subversion of Harry Warren's "I Only Have Eyes For You." The sentimental, dreamy side of this tune had recently been brought to the fore with the Flamingos' doowop hit; Johnson and his group romp and stomp through it.


The group includes Johnson's older brother Keg on trombone. Budd had the more prominent career of the two brothers, but both claimed their place in jazz history.  They started out together in Dallas playing in their father's band and also--an unusual credit--in the ensemble of Portia Washington Pittman, the daughter of Booker T. Washington and a noted music educator in Dallas. They played in bands together in Dallas and later in Kansas City, but then Keg struck out on his own for Chicago, where he joined Louis Armstrong's ensemble. He put together a solid career in music, including 15 years with Cab Calloway. This was his only recording with his brother. Shortly thereafter, he would join Ray Charles's band, and remain in that group until his death in 1967.The rhythm section of Tommy Flanagan, George Duvivier and Charlie Persip is impeccable, and all three are active participants, especially Duvivier and Persip. Duvivier has some memorable exchanges with Budd, and Persip some infectious solos.Duvivier by this time was a solid regular on many Prestige sessions. Persip had done a few others, starting in 1956 with Phil Woods and Donald Byrd. And he had been a spectator at a memorable early Prestige session--the 1954 Miles Davis Quintet, where Miles and Monk almost came to blows. Persip had been invited along as a protégé of Kenny Clarke, the drummer on the session, and his account of the conflict, and the story behind one of Monk's oddest piano solos, is in our entry on the date.

Tommy Flanagan, straight from Detroit in 1956, had made his Prestige debut  that same year on a Miles Davis session. In those days, coming from Detroit was virtually all the credential one needed to gain a foothold in New York's highly competitive jazz world, but Flanagan was one of the best Detroit had to offer. He had already played on over two dozen Prestige sessions, and would do many more, including a few as leader later in the 1960s. He is particularly strong here on "Blues by Budd," my favorite cut, and my "Listen to One."

The album was called Let's Swing!, and it was appropriately released on Swingville. Esmond Edwards produced.

Listening to Prestige Vol. 2, 1955-56, and Vol. 3, 1957-58 now include, in the Kindle editions, links to all the "Listen to One" selections. All three volumes available from Amazon.

And Vol. 4 is very close to completion. Watch for it!

The most interesting book of its kind that I have ever seen. If any of you real jazz lovers want to know about some of the classic records made by some of the legends of jazz, get this book. LOVED IT.
– Terry Gibbs