Billboard : 01/14/1956
Score of 78

To all who can’t understand the current Basie boom, and certainly to those who do, this set is urgently recommended. Nat Pierce is an excellent pianist in the Basie idiom, but when Basie himself takes over the piano for two takes of Shoe Shine Boy, the happiness becomes transcendental. It’s Basie and Jones reunited for a new recording of the first number they ever recorded together, back in 1936. Jones’ own subtle melodic, and driving drumming – revolutionary then, is just as strong, and just as modern today, from the solo evidence on hand. But Shoe Shine is the item to demonstrate.

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Audio
Jean Shepherd : March, 1956

Some of the best Basie rhythm sounds to be recorded in years. Jones, of course, is one of the really great drummers and was never better than on this fine LP. Basie himself appears on several cuts and once again demonstrates how rare a thing a good ensemble piano really is. He drives a group as though he had a bullwhip in his left hand and a .45 in the other.

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Kansas City Call
Albert Anderson : 08/17/1956

Vanguard’s Jo Jones Special marks the first recording of the noted jazz drummer as the leader of a combo. The album also reunited for the first time the original Count Basie rhythm section, which is considered to be the finest in jazz history. One of the surprises of the release is that of finding Count Basie sitting in for two numbers of Shoe Shine Boy the first was back in 1936 on the Vocalin label at a memorable session which was the record debut of Lester Young. No attempt is made to recreate the famous performance, but Vanguard hoped through the two versions to bring back some of the excitement Basie and Jones aroused during the Golden Age of jazz. Other numbers on the excellently recorded disc are Lover Man, Georgia Mae, Caravan, Lincoln Heights and Embraceable You.

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Saturday Review
Whitney Balliett : 02/11/1956

A celebration for the present vizar of jazz drummers that is, in addition to being a superb all-around record, notable for the reunion (on two takes of Shoe Shine Boy) of the original Basie rhythm section and the Count himself, who plays as he has never played before. When he is backing up, Basie rumbles, plunges, burns, and rollicks, eight hands flying, and, invariably, the smoke reaches the front line (E. Berry, L. Thompson, [Artist42632,B. Green), as it did here. Two originals and four standards. Indispensable.

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San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason : 02/09/1956

Kansas City style, which is to say Count Basie style, has been the starting point of considerable jazz improvisation this past year and there are a couple of new Vanguard LPs that are prime examples of it. Jo Jones Special, the first LP the drummer man has ever had for himself, offers a group of fine old swing-type numbers with Count Basie sitting in on piano for one of them. Otherwise, it’s Count’s shadow, Nat Pierce, Walter Page and Freddy Greene making the rhythm for Emmett Berry (who sounds just great), Benny Green and Lucky Thompson.

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Down Beat : 01/25/1956
Nat Hentoff : 5 stars

The Jo Jones Special is the first album on which “the man who plays like the wind” has been the leader. On four numbers, his associates are Emmett Berry, trumpet; Bennie Green, trombone; Walter Page, bass; Lucky Thompson, tenor; Freddie Greene, guitar, and Nat Pierce, piano.

On the two magnificently robust takes of Shoe Shine Boy, the guest pianist is Count Basie, thereby reuniting what was the greatest rhythm section in jazz for the first time in eight years. Listening to Count on these takes is another lesson in how his economical, deeply pulsating piano functions as one of the best comping instruments in jazz. And never before has Count’s piano been better recorded. On Caravan, largely a rare display piece for Jo Jones, the musicians are Lawrence Brown, Buddy Tate, Rudy Powell, Walter Page, Freddie Greene.

Throughout all the sides, the uniting personality is Jo, a master of flowingly musical jazz drumming. Aside from his huge stature in the history of jazz percussion, Jo still remains one of the greatest of contemporary jazz drummers.

Soloists Green and Berry are excellent, but the hornman who especially excels is tenor Thompson, one of the most unjustly neglected artists in jazz. This session is another credit to John Hammond’s major contributions to jazz recording history.

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Liner Notes by John Hammond

This album marks the first recording of Jo Jones as the leader of a combo. It also reunites for the first time in eight years the original Count Basie rhythm section, which is generally conceded to be the finest in jazz history. And finally, it displays the thoughtfulness and cooperation of which the phonograph industry is capable.

Before these notes go any further, Vanguard would like to give fervent thanks to Norman Granz of Clef Records, who hold an exclusive contract for the services of Count Basie and his magnificent orchestra. Basie’s appearance at the session was one of those surprises that come all too seldom in music, and Norman’s subsequent permission for the release of Shoe Shine Boy is a gesture almost unprecedented in this business. We are also indebted to Prestige Records and Bob Weinstock for the presence of their superlative trombonist, Bennie Green.

There are many outstanding drummers in jazz, and each has his devoted admirers. But all would agree that Jo Jones belongs among the elect, and there is no list of the drummers who have made jazz history that would not put him at the top or close to it. He combines an incredible technique with lightness, humor and imagination. In 1936, when Jo invaded the East as drummer with Count Basie’s big band, he single-handedly changed the entire concept of jazz percussion. Great drummers like Chick Webb, Gene Krupa and even Sid Catlett had provided the rhythm section and the entire band with a driving power and beat. Jo relaxed the drive of the right foot, using it for just the necessary accents, reminding the listener of the beat rather than insisting on it, realizing that one note in the right place could have more effect than a flurry of sound. He added a variety of timbres, establishing the jazz battery of drums as a musical instrument of genuine beauty. It was the perfect counterfoil to the new approach to jazz piano introduced by Basie. Jones and Basie, with the inspired collaboration of Freddie Greene on guitar and Walter Page on bass, brought richness of sound and subtlety to jazz rhythm, providing at the same time an unequaled lift and support for the soloists.

There was perhaps a sentimental reason for Count Basie sitting in with the group to do Shoe Shine Boy. The tune, which had been used in a shake dancer’s routine in the floor show at Chicago’s Grand Terrace, was the very first tune which Basie and Jones recorded together. The time was October, 1936, the label was Vocalion, and the studio a very small room in a Michigan Avenue office building. The memorable session was also the record debut of Lester Young. The present version made just about nineteen years later, is of course no attempt to recreate the famous old performance. Among other changes, we have Emmett Berry, Lucky Thompson and Bennie Green present, with imaginative things of their own to say. It is our hope however that the two versions of the tune on this disc will recreate some of the excitement that Basie and Jo Jones aroused during that golden era of jazz.

The presence of both the first and second “take” on this disc also indicates that changes have come about in the jazz record world. There were also two “takes” on the 1936 Shoe Shine Boy, one better than the other. At the time, however, it would have been unthinkable to issue both, since the artists were all but unknown, and the public would have considered itself short-changed with two interpretations, however different, of a single tune. Vanguard has no hesitation in 1955-6 to put out two Shoe Shine Boys, made at the same session, since the mood, tempo, and solos differ so greatly. Jo and Basie lean to the relaxed feeling of the first, but would have no quarrel at all with those who find greater excitement in the speed and drive of the second.

Nat Pierce was the regular pianist for the session, and presides at the keyboard in all the other numbers. A veteran of Woody Herman‘s band, he made The Nat Pierce Bandstand (VRS-8017) for Vanguard. He will soon start his own combo. Emmett Berry played with Basie from 1945 to 1950, and Eli “Lucky” Thompson was with Basie in 1944-5, winning in 1947 the Esquire New Star award. Bennie Green first attained prominence with the Earl Hines band and is now one of the leading modernists on the trombone. It is his guffaw which is heard at the conclusion of the first take of Shoe Shine Boy, and his beautiful, subtle, “singing” style which is heard in the long chorus of Lover Man, by Ram Ramirez and in the opening of George Gershwin‘s Embraceable You. Lincoln Heights, an original tune by Jo Jones and Lucky Thompson, is an example of modern swing, in which we can hear the debt of the modernists to the old Basie band. For it has the relaxed feeling, the combination of subtlety and drive, with plenty of “holes” through which the music can come through, typical of the old great Basie performances. Georgia Mae is a scintillating exercise in wit, with the ball passing in turn from Green to Thompson to Berry to Piece, and then Jo Jones taking over, revealing both his amazing drum technique and, as rarely heard on records, the true musicality of his solos. Caravan was made at a different session, and the trombone and clarinet solos are by Lawrence Brown and Rudy Powell. Here again we have a tune long associated with a famous and classic performance – that by Duke Ellington – but taken up freshly, looked at from a new angle, and given a new dress which may become a classic of its kind. It is also one of the rare Jo Jones “display pieces” on discs. The session from which it was an offshoot included not only Brown and Powell, but Buddy Tate, Pete Johnson, and, presiding over all, the blues singing of Jimmy Rushing, about which we will have more to say on another record liner.