Billboard : 01/12/1957
Score of 83

Johnson, after several years’ experimentation in trombone sonorities with Kai Winding, is heard now in a different context. The second horn in his new quintet is wielded by Bobby Jasper, Belgian tenor man and flutist, who has recently taken up permanent residence here. This is his first record since arrival and the impression is a favorable one, if not outstanding. After the crisp, snappy air of the Kai and Jay sets, this one has a draggy, unswinging feel in spots. However, Johnson’s playing always carries much interest; there is enough inventiveness and solid playing to carry the day for the average jazz fan. Very good sales predicted.

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Cashbox : 02/09/1957

J.J. Johnson‘s usual co-trombonist Kai Winding, sat this one out, but nevertheless, this Columbia disk of a temporary and reshuffling quintet contains many bright spots. The boys go over 10 standards and originals in presenting hefty and sensitive jazz sessions here. Chasin’ The Bird and It Might As Well Be Spring are two of the numbers the crew carries with conviction. Strong tenor sax and flute work by Belgian artist Bobby Jaspar. Reliable jazz performances.

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Miami Herald
Fred Sherman : 02/10/1957

An old name with a new twist is J.J. Johnson, the poll-winning trombone player. The record counters saw plenty of action last year when he twinned his horn with Kai Winding. It started as a gimmick and turned into rage.

The two men made a lot of music together before they split up couple months ago. Now Columbia has grabbed the J.J. Johnson Quintet for an album called J is for Jazz.

It was a bit premature because the personnel hadn’t quite jelled at the time of the recording sessions, but quality didn’t suffer. You’ll find Johnson playing through the 10 numbers with Bobby Jaspar, Belgium’s gift to jazz, on tenor and flute. The drummer is Elvin Jones. Brother Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan split the piano duty. On bass are Percy Heath and Wilbur Little.

So much for the vital statistics. The music, arranged by Johnson, is both pleasant and interesting. I prefer the group on the up-tempo numbers, but don’t overlook the beautiful Never Let Me Go. The trombone and flute get real emotional with this tender tune.

Another treat is Johnson’s own Naptown U.S.A., a tribute to his hometown of Indianapolis. A happy number.

Listen to this album and you’ll have to agree with the critic and jazz fan polls that have placed Johnson at the top of the trombone slide the last couple of years.

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Saturday Review
Whitney Balliett : 01/12/1957

An entirely agreeable session by the master trombonist, accompanied here by Bobby Jaspar (tenor and flute), H. Jones or T. Flanagan, P. Heath or W. Little, and Elvin Jones. There are seven standards and three originals. Although Johnson maintains his impeccable technical aplomb throughout, he threatens several times to shatter the glassy, oblique mold he has long since adopted by playing with an intensity once associated with Dicky Wells. Jaspar is helpful all the way through, as is Elvin Jones, a skilled and promising new drummer. Very worthwhile.

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St. Paul Recorder
Albert Anderson : 02/15/1957

The new J.J. Johnson Quintet album called J is for Jazz is the most in modern jazz. The temporary and revamped five man crew work over a 10 standard medley with heftiness and strength. Strong tenor sax and flute work is emitted from Belgian artist Bobby Jaspar in such numbers as Chasin’ The Bird and It Might As Well Be Spring. Under Columbia needles, the LP features J.J. at his greatest.

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Down Beat : 01/23/1957
Nat Hentoff : 3.5 stars

Conservative-modern jazz played with taste and feeling. J.J. is the major soloist, blowing with valuable personal conception, clarity, and unfailing time. Jaspar, the Belgian-born jazzman who won the International Jazz Critics’ New Star Award on tenor is an able modern-mainstream tenor who as yet hasn’t found his own instantly identifiable voice on the instrument. His flute, however, is more wholly his, since he blows it with a fuller, more legitimate (though still jazz in feeling and phrasing) tone than most of his jazz contemporaries.

The arrangements, all by J.J., are calm, lucid, but ultimately neither as challenging nor as durable, for the most part, as they could be. J.J., while usually one of the better writers in jazz, nonetheless needs a more varied book and some charts that venture farther structurally than these.

But in essence, this is a fertile combo, well worth spending time with. Rhythm section support throughout is admirable. The rating would have been higher if the arrangements had been somewhat less polite.

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Liner Notes by George Avakian

J.J. Johnson, considered by man to be the originator and leading exponent of the modern jazz trombone style, has until recently been the co-leader, with the extraordinary Kai Winding, of a quintet featuring two trombones with rhythm section. Their work together on Columbia, with their quintet (CL 742) and with a trombone octet (CL 892), is one of the highlights of the Columbia jazz catalog, but is also of a kind which has proven popular with the public at large. The same bids fair to be true with the groups they have just formed independently of one another.

The J.J. Johnson Quintet makes one change in instrumentation, but it is an important one. In Kai’s old spot, one finds Bobby Jaspar, tenor saxophonist and flutist extraordinary. Bobby, while new to the American scene, is well known in Europe. As Belgium’s leading jazzman, Bobby won critics’ awards and public acclaim all over the continent for his fine contemporary-style playing. Now a permanent resident of the United States, this is his debut before the American public. His appearance in this album is by special arrangement with the company for which he records exclusively – View more images Pathé-Marconi, subsidiary of Electrical and Mechanical Industries, Ltd.

As these recordings were made on the eve of J.J.’s launching of his new Quintet, it was impossible to line up the same rhythm section for each session. The changes of personnel are as follows: for Angel Eyes, Overdrive, and Undecided, Hank Jones played piano and Percy Heath played bass. On Tumbleweeds, Solar, Never Let Me Go, and Cube Steak, Wilbur Little replaced Heath. The remaining tunes were made with Tommy Flanagan in place of Hank Jones. The drummer throughout was Elvin Jones, Hank’s brother.

All the arrangements in this set are by J.J. himself. As usual, he has chosen repertoire which is anything but overdone, and he has also written three originals.

Naptown U.S.A. commemorates his home town of Indianapolis; astute ferreting by the musically minded will also turn up another reason for this association. J.J. can’t explain why Indianapolis is known locally as “Naptown,” but this Johnson original is anything but sleepy. It Might As Well be Spring and Never Let Me Go are lovely ballads which give Bobby Jaspar an opportunity to blend his rich flute tone with J.J.’s trombone; obviously this combination gives the Quintet a distinctive “second sound.”

Tumbling Tumbleweed is an unexpected vehicle for a jazz group; J.J. explains that the idea occurred to him when he heard a trio in Chicago give it a swinging treatment once, and he has finally had an opportunity to try it out himself, with the fine results which can be heard here. Matt Dennis‘ Angel Eyes makes a fine dead-slow ballad for the group, and equally tailor-made in a different vein are two bouncy originals from the bop school, Miles Davis‘ Solar and Charlie Parker‘s Chasin’ the Bird. Overdrive and Cube Steak are two up-tempo compositions by J.J. which are written especially for this group.