Stan Getz And J.J. Johnson At The Opera House

At first glance, promoter/producer Norman Granz’s pairing of Stan Getz and J.J. Johnson for Jazz at the Philharmonic didn’t make a lot of sense. This was 1957: Getz was exploring cool jazz, while Johnson was moving towards hard bop; Getz played tenor, Johnson played trombone. So credit the players’ sympathy—and Granz’s freakishly reliable intuition—for the fact that it works. Culled from two shows—one in Los Angeles, another in Chicago—and backed by a powerful band (including Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Herb Ellis and Modern Jazz Quartet drummer Connie Kay), At the Opera House is a standout moment in the JATP series, an instance of contrast and collaboration revealing new sides to seemingly familiar players. The hard-driving stuff is expectedly great (“Billie’s Bounce”, a breakneck “Crazy Rhythm”), but it’s the ballads that surprise—particularly the Getz spotlight “It Never Entered My Mind” and two iterations of “My Funny Valentine”, where Getz and Johnson dovetail for minutes on end without stepping on each other's toes.