Customer Reviews

Trombones Inc.

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This is one of my alltime favorite jazz albums. I bought it on vinyl when I was 13 years old and it knocked my socks off.
Ever since CDs were introduced - and that would be 25 years ago this month - I've been looking for a CD version of this album.
I had all but given up ever hearing it again, my vinyl copy having been destroyed in a flood, until I did a routine check for it last week on Amazon.com and discovered it had been reissued. My copy arrived today and I am ecstatic!
Old Devil Moon was always my favorite track and it still blows me away.
I had worried that the CD version, if there ever was one, might be poorly engineered or recorded from an LP instead of from the original source material. I needn't have worried.
The sound is crisp, punchy and vital and far better than I remember from the LP.
And if that weren't enough, they've added a track that wasn't on the original album.
Forty-nine years is a long time to wait for something like this, but now that it's here, I can tell you it was worth the wait.

A veritable [....] of trombone players. Twenty-seven different trombonists, in two separate groups (one made of East Coast players, the other West Coast - it was popular back then to portray the two coasts as if they were at jazz war with each other), appear on the disc, which was originally released on Warner Brothers back in 1958. Anyone who had an affinity to modern jazz and blew the bone is here. With as many as 10 trombonists playing on a single track (backed by a rhythm section) the music can sometimes attain a "Music Man" feel to it; indeed LASSUS TROMBONE by the West Coasters starts off like a halftime show at the Rose Bowl. But thanks to some good arrangements by JJ Johnson, Marty Paich, and Warren Barker, the music actually swings, and swings pretty good, throughout the proceedings. The album is a lot of fun, and in keeping with the big, brassy nature of the trombone sound (multiplied) and the connection to football halftimes and team rivalry, Final Score: West Coast by a field goal in overtime.

There have been many jazz recordings of large trombone ensembles, such as those by Kai Winding, J.J. Johnson, and Urbie Green in the 1950s and 60s, and more recently Slide Hampton's excellent 2002 album "The Spirit of the Horn." This album, which features arrangements for up to 10 trombones, ranks right up with those other top-notch efforts.
Trombone aficionados will recognize many names from this series of December 1958 sessions that were done on both the East Coast and West Coast. To name just a few: Milt Bernhart, Jimmy Cleveland, Dick Nash, George Roberts, and Frank Rosolino. Fortunately, the liner notes (from both this release and the original) give plenty of information on who plays on which session and who the soloists are. I noticed one minor error. The track listing shows Bob Brookmeyer playing valve trombone for both East Coast and West Coast sessions. This unlikely circumstance is explained by the narrative in the original liner notes: the valve trombonist on the West Coast actually was Bob Enevoldsen (who was also well known as a tenor saxophonist).
The arrangers - J.J. Johnson in the east and Marty Paich and Warren Barker in the west - did a brilliant job. It would be hard to pick "best" arrangements from this assortment, because all of the writers clearly had a thorough appreciation for the dynamic and expressive range of a big trombone ensemble. The 10 horns are often divided into two sections playing counterpoint to each other, and sometimes three sections when the bass trombones are off doing their own thing. This produces a quasi-big band sound with the sections playing off each other just as saxes, trumpets, and bones commonly do.
Both the ensemble playing and the solos are a joy to listen to. For students of the trombone, this album is a master class not to be missed. For everyone else, it's a heck of a lot of fun.

I got this recording by asking Dick Nash for a copy. He asked Charlie Loper to make a dub for me. Once out in CD I ordered it. Some of these players are my friends. I've heard a great deal about how this recording was made and about how the players felt about it. They are generally very proud of this recording. I feel they should be. It is a unique one in the sense that two different approaches and two different groups of players made the two "sides" of this album. One side really features the writing of trombone great J.J. Johnson. The other is essentially a studio musician "tour de force" arranged and performed by studio heavies of the late 1950's and early sixties. The improvised soloing is of the absolute highest quality. The engineering is very good. Performances also very, very good. If you are a fan of jazz trombone, particularly in large trombone ensemble setting, you need to get this album. It is up there with "Tutti's Trombones" and "21 Trombones" and several of the Urbie Green recordings.

As a trombonist and trombone teacher, this is one of two recordings that I consider essential. "Trombones, Inc.," along with "Tutti's Trombones," provide pretty much everything you need to know on what jazz trombone should sound like in either a solo or ensemble setting.

It's also just great fun to hear that many great players playing together!

Great arrangements and playing. One of thr best recordings of this type made to date. If you like trombone you'll for sure enjoy this.

A great album for the Trombone player. All these great players with JJ Johnson arrangements? who could ask for more. I love it,

This isn't something I'd normally buy, but quick listen of the samples here convinced me otherwise. Now that I've heard the full CD, I'm quite impressed. It's just heavenly. Wonderful, beautiful music. I get why it's classic.

Wow. This album has everything that I love about the trombone. As a music educator and a trombone player, I can't think of any reason why any trombone player shouldn't own this album. Excellent, excellent, excellent.

excellent work by some the best players of their time. half by east coast players,half by west coast players. I like the charts by the west coast half better, they have more excitement. However the east coast guys can cary their own water. Great album.