The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 1

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	(Crown award)[3]

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars and stated "Although Johnson has a couple of features, Clifford Brown largely steals the show".[4] The Penguin Guide to Jazz included both volumes of The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson in its "Core Collection", and assigned its "crown" accolade, along with a four-star rating (of a possible four stars), to both albums.[3] Penguin editors Richard Cook and Brian Morton called the first volume "one of the central documents of post-war jazz."[3]

Part of the album's content was originally released as part of Blue Note's 10-inch Modern Jazz 5000 Series, as BLP 5028, entitled Jay Jay Johnson with Clifford Brown. When reissued in Blue Note's 12-inch 1500 series of LPs, tracks from the original 1953 recording session were spread over two albums and combined with tracks from a later session (which had been released as The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Vol. 2 (BLP 5057)), producing The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Volume 1 (BLP 1505) and The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Volume 2 (BLP 1506).[5] The CD reissue put the original six tracks from BLP 5028 together with three alternative takes from the same session and had the title The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Volume 1, although variations in punctuation do occur.[6][7] Although it uses the same artwork as BLP 1505 it is essentially an expanded reissue of the original "Jay Jay Johnson With..." 10 inch album (BLP 5028) rather than a reissue of "The Eminent...Volume 1" (BLP 1505) compilation itself.

The 1989/1997 Blue Note CD re-issues (CDP 7 81505 2) include the same content as the 2001 CD, but the tracks are arranged chronologically by recording date.

1953 June 22 recording session. LP tracks 1~5 and all CD tracks:

• J.J. Johnson – trombone
• Clifford Brown – trumpet (except "It Could Happen To You")
• Jimmy Heath – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone (except "It Could Happen To You")
• John Lewis – piano
• Percy Heath – bass
• Kenny Clarke – drums

1954 September 24 recording session. LP tracks 6~10:

• J.J. Johnson – trombone
• Wynton Kelly – piano
• Charles Mingus – bass
• Kenny Clarke – drums
• Sabu Martinez – congas (except, "It's You or No One")