A little less complete might have been better...
T. Bensch | Beltsville, MD United States | 04/10/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"J.J.Johnson, himself, always sounds great. But this compilation of four albums would have been dramatically better if it had only included the first ("Dynamic Sound...") and last ("Total..."). The cuts from those two albums are well worth the cost of the set; hearing JJ play with a big band that includes Thad Jones, Clark Terry, Oliver Nelson, etc., is spectacular. Unfortunately, the orchestral arrangements (and the orchestra itself) for "Broadway Express" are almost painful. The horribly dated arrangements on "Goodies" are even worse (it's like a combination of elevator music and the Swingle Singers, with an overlay of JJ's nice trombone sound). If the albums had been combined differently, you could just dump one of the CDs -- But it's one good, and one dreadful, album on each disc. So as long as you're planning to rip the good tracks to an MP3 player or a single CD, you'd be good to go. Otherwise be ready for some serious track skipping."