Editorial Review:

Album Description:
Japanese reissue of the classic jazz album originally released on Blue Note, featuring 24 bit digital remastering and a miniature LP sleeve reproduction of the original artwork limited to the initial pressing. 2000 release.

Album Details:
Japanese Version featuring a Limited Edition LP Style Slipcase for Initial Pressing.

Rating: - Good stuff!
Volume 2 pulls together two sessions, one with Wynton Kelly, Charles Mingus, Kenny Clarke, and Sabu Martinez, and another with Hank Mobley, Horace Silver, Paul Chambers, and Kenny Clarke. The first session is better than the second, but the album overall is very good. It's mainstream bebop from 1954 & 1955, 4-minute long songs, melody-solo-melody. What pulls everything together is Johnson's superb trombone playing. 8 of the 13 songs are standards, the others are by J.J. Johnson. Johnson's writing ... Read More

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Rating: - A Jazz Master
One of the greatest and most influential figures in 20th century improvised music, JJ is on awesome form here. Some may find Sabu's playing a distraction, but JJ's majestic tone and awesome inventive power shine through all over the album. Back to back ballads (in the same key!) have Mingus and Co leaving all the space in the world for that famously fat sound to sing out, pure, and as close to the human voice as any other sound you will ever hear. The only negative is the seemingly now obligatory inclusion ... Read More

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Rating: - An Album That Lives Up To Its Title
When the name of your album is "The Amazing Bud Powell," "The Fabulous Fats Navarro" or "The Eminent J.J. Johnson," you'd better live up to the billing. Well, J.J. does! This, the second volume of "Eminent," was originally released on Blue Note as two 10-inch records. The CD compiles two seesions, one from September 1954 and the other from June 1955, with three alternates that were not origianlly released. The first six tunes are from the '54 session featuring Mingus(!), Wynton Kelly, Kenny Clarke and ... Read More