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Bob Perkins Recommends: Joe Pass & J.J. Johnson, We’ll Be Together Again

If you’re a lover of great jazz, then you know the real joy in taking time to relax and listen to a recording by a gifted performer.

But even better than that... how about listening to two gifted performers on the same recording date? Your finely-tuned ears will be in for a treat, should you choose to add the Joe Pass / J.J. Johnson CD We’ll Be Together Again to your music library.

J.J. Johnson was a legendary trombonist, dubbed “The Charlie Parker of the trombone.” Parker made the also sax do things it didn't know it could do; and Johnson did the same with the slide trombone.

Joe Pass, likewise, was an epic guitarist. If Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan were around today, they would echo Amens. Pass accompanied these storied ladies of song, and a few others who didn’t mind having their voice and name associated with the best. But Pass was more than an accompanist, he was also a masterful solo guitarist.

Johnson and Pass have the CD all to themselves... no rhythm section needed. Who knew that the unlikely pairing of a trombone and guitar would sound so good? Well, the dynamic duo makes it so. Even the great ones reach back for something extra when paired with someone of equal rank, and that’s what happens on this disc.

If you like standard material like “Nature Boy,” “When Lights Are Low,” “Wave,” “Limehouse Blues,” and “We’ll Be Together Again,” coupled with jazz standards like “Blue Bossa” and “Solar,” played by two artists who interpret the songs as well as or better than they were written, then We’ll Be Together Again should be right down your musical alley.

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Also known as "BP with the GM," (translation: "Bob Perkins with the Good Music"), Mr. Perkins has been in the broadcasting industry for more than five decades as an on-air host, and is now commonly referred to as a Philadelphia jazz radio legend.