Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Jay Jay Johnson

Volume 1 - The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson

c. 1957-1961 · Blue Note BLP 1505 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Blue Note
Catalogue number	BLP 1505
Year	c. 1957-1961
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Hard Bop
Producer	Alfred Lion
Musicians	Jay Jay Johnson (trombone), Clifford Brown (trumpet), John Lewis (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Kenny Clarke (drums) [side 1, rec. June 22, 1953]; Jay Jay Johnson (trombone), Wynton Kelly (piano), Charles Mingus (bass), Sabu Martinez (congas), Kenny Clarke (drums) [side 2, rec. September 24, 1954]

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  BN-LP-1505-A 9M EAR RVG
Side B:  BN-LP-1505-B 9M EAR RVG

Condition

Cover: VG+
Vinyl: VG+

Variant chronology

1955 - US Blue Note BLP 1505, 767 Lexington Ave label, flat edge, frame cover
1956 - US Blue Note BLP 1505, 767 Lexington Ave label, flat edge, no-frame cover
1957-1961 - US Blue Note BLP 1505, deep-groove label mixing a 767 Lexington Ave side with a 47 West 63rd - New York 23 side  <- this copy
1957-1961 - US Blue Note BLP 1505, deep-groove 47 West 63rd - New York 23 label both sides
1966-1967 - US Blue Note BLP 1505, repress, New York 23 flat (non deep-groove) label
1966-1977 - US Blue Note BST 81505, stereo reissue
1978 - Japan Blue Note GXK8032(M), reissue
1983 - Japan Blue Note BLP 1505, remastered reissue
1983 - France Blue Note BLP 1505, reissue
2004 - Japan Blue Note BLP 1505, reissue
2022 - Worldwide Blue Note BLP 1505/4535351, Classic Vinyl Series reissue

This Pressing

Second pressing (mono, c. 1957-1961) - deep-groove label pairing a 767 Lexington Ave side with a 47 West 63rd - New York 23 side, the latter dating the pressing no earlier than 1957; hand-etched RVG + Plastylite ear, 9M stamper both sides.

The Album

J.J. Johnson had already established himself in the mid-1940s as the trombonist who proved the instrument's slide mechanism could keep pace with bebop's rapid-fire lines, and by the early 1950s he was the dominant voice on the horn in modern jazz. This compilation gathers two of his key Blue Note sessions: a 1953 sextet date that paired him with the young Clifford Brown, shortly before Brown's own meteoric rise, alongside John Lewis, Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke, and a 1954 session with Wynton Kelly, Charles Mingus, Sabu Martinez and Kenny Clarke that leaned into a looser, Afro-Cuban-tinged rhythmic feel. The material mixes originals from Johnson's pen with standards refashioned in hard-bop harmonic language, showcasing both his compositional voice and his fluency as an improviser. These sessions helped cement Johnson's reputation as the trombone's first true bebop virtuoso and remain a cornerstone of the instrument's jazz vocabulary. Critics and historians have long cited this body of work as essential listening in tracing how bebop's rhythmic and harmonic innovations were absorbed into the trombone's technical vocabulary. The record's stature endures as a foundational entry in both Johnson's discography and Blue Note's catalog of 1950s modern jazz.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Turnpike (Jay Jay Johnson)
2. Lover Man (Ramirez)
3. Get Happy (Koehler-Arlen)
4. Sketch 1 (John Lewis)
5. Capri (Gigi Gryce)

Side 2

1. Jay (Jay Jay Johnson)
2. Old Devil Moon (Lane-Harburg)
3. It's You or No One (Styne-Cahn)
4. Too Marvelous for Words (Mercer-Whiting)
5. Coffee Pot (Jay Jay Johnson)

The Label

The side labels on this copy do not match: Side 1 carries the Blue Note Records 767 Lexington Ave NYC rim text while Side 2 carries the Blue Note Records - 47 West 63rd - New York 23 rim text, both printed on the same white-and-blue deep-groove Blue Note design. The 767 Lexington Ave address was the company's label copy until early 1957, when the 47 West 63rd - New York 23 label was first printed; the plain 47 West 63rd NYC label followed it. A disc carrying the New York 23 design on either side cannot be older than that printing, so a copy pairing a Lexington Ave label with a New York 23 label is a later assembly made from leftover Lexington stock alongside newer New York 23 labels, placing it in the second-pressing window rather than at the title's 1955-56 introduction.

Fidelity

Both sides carry Rudy Van Gelder's hand-etched RVG along with the Plastylite ear, placing the metalwork in the same early stamper lineage used across the title's Lexington and West 63rd/New York 23 label runs rather than any later remaster. Collectors on the forums regard these original Van Gelder-mastered Plastylite pressings, across their several label printings, as the sonic benchmark for the title, ahead of the mid-1960s stereo reissue and the later Japanese and CD remasterings. The labels on this copy date its manufacture to 1957 or later even though the lacquers are unchanged from the earlier Lexington-only pressings, so its sound sits with that same early generation while its paper places it later in the pressing run.

Notes

This mono Blue Note BLP 1505 has a deep groove on both sides and matching RVG/ear/9M matrix marks on each side, but its two labels are not the same printing: Side 1 reads 767 Lexington Ave NYC while Side 2 reads 47 West 63rd - New York 23. The New York 23 suffix was not added to the Blue Note label until 1957, so this disc cannot be the 1955-56 first issue, which carried Lexington labels on both sides; it is a later assembly built from leftover Lexington stock and newer New York 23 labels. The runout etchings come from the same master lacquers used from the title's introduction, but the labels place this particular copy in the 1957-1961 pressing window.

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