J.J.Johnson The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Volume 1 UHQCD

Numbered, Limited Edition UHQCD!
Playable on any CD player, the Ultimate High Quality CD greatly surpasses all previous CDs before it!
Trombonist J.J. Johnson adopted the language of bebop early on and adapted it to his instrument, earning him the admiration of artists such as Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker. After participating in the recording of Miles Davis' first album in 1952, which was released by Blue Note, Johnson was given the opportunity to record two albums as a bandleader in 1953 and 1954. The first featured a top-class sextet in which Johnson was accompanied by the brilliant trumpeter Clifford Brown, saxophonist Jimmy Heath, pianist John Lewis, double bassist Percy Heath and drummer Kenny Clarke. With them, he recorded a varied program that produced lively pieces such as "Turnpike" and beautiful ballads such as "Lover Man". Some time later, Johnson went to Rudy Van Gelder's recording studio to record the unforgettable pieces of "Old Devil Moon," the very personal "Coffee Pot," and other classics with a quintet that included pianist Wynton Kelly, double bassist Charles Mingus, drummer Kenny Clarke again, and conguero Sabu Martinez. Richard Cook and Brian Morton count "The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Vol.1" among the "central documents of post-war jazz" and among the most important albums in the formative phase of hard bop. In their "Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD" they awarded the album the highest rating of four stars and the addition of the "Krone" for an extraordinary album.
In the course of the extremely popular "Blue Note 85th Anniversary Reissue Series", Universal Music Japan presents the sonically impressive remastering of this jazz classic by the legendary Kevin Gray, who is also responsible for the analog reissues of Blue Note US such as "Tone Poet" and "Classic Vinyl" - as a limited Japanese UHQCD with OBI Stripe. The original recording sessions for "The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Vol.1" took place on June 22, 1953 at WOR Studios in New York and September 24, 1954 at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey.
UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. UHQCDs, unlike conventional CDs, are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. To protect the softer photopolymer from scratching, another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied. The combination results in a significantly reduced reflection of the laser light inside the CD and an unrivalled precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with normal CD players. Musically, the result is a sound that is strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.
While Universal Music Japan's first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now being released with increasing popularity. Typically, the master tapes of the Universal Archive are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not have a SACD player.

Features:

• Numbered, Limited Edition
• Made in Japan
• Superior Crystal Sound
• Ultimate High Quality CD
• XRCD-Like Luxury Digipak
• Playable on conventional CD players

Musicians:

• Clifford Brown, trumpet
• Jay Jay Johnson, trombone
• Jimmy Heath, tenor & baritone sax
• John Lewis, piano
• Wynton Kelly, piano
• Percy Heath, bass
• Charlie Mingus, bass
• Kenny Clarke, drums
• Sabu, conga drum

Selections:

1. Turnpike
2. Lover Man
3. Get Happy
4. Sketch 1
5. Capri
6. Jay
7. Old Devil Moon
8. It's You Or No One
9. Too Marvelous For Words
10. Coffee Pot