John Fedchock heads a Hoosier quartet to pay tribute to J.J. Johnson

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Fedchock taking care of J.J. business
As a fledgling trombonist, my youthful idea of jazz trombone swung between two poles: Jack Teagarden and J.J. Johnson. Off to the side, more as a model of pristine tone and fluidity than jazz chops, stood Tommy Dorsey.

So, when I moved to Indianapolis in 1986, part of the excitement was establishing a home in Johnson's hometown. He started out here, he ended up here, and this year is his birth centenary. 

To celebrate that, the well-regarded New York trombonist and arranger John Fedchock was brought in Sunday night
to the Jazz Kitchen, fronting a quartet of local/regional stalwarts: pianist Steve Allee, bassist Jeremy Allen, and drummer Sean Dobbins. 

That lineup delivered on a promise of a proper tribute to Naptown's trombone native son. Especially winning was Fedchock's detailed placing in bandstand remarks of the tunes the quartet offered: their places in the Johnson discography and  the honoree's stature as a model of adapting the trombone to tonal gymnastics of bebop and then displaying unprecedented skill at being what Fedchock called "a compositional player." 

Fedchock's history with the venue goes back to the 1980s, when the club was called The Place to
Start, in an appearance as a member of the Woody Herman band, where he honed his arranging skills. Much more recently, he came back leading his sextet at the Kitchen, displaying (as he did Sunday night in this tribute) the same wealth of ideas, applied with great dexterity when the tempo and the inspiration called it forth.

He showed himself agile in all registers in Johnson's "Short Cake," following Allee's deep-delving chordal

All quartet eyes on Allen's solo

solo. He inspired and gave space to the other sidemen here, giving Allen a well-deserved feature on "Lullaby of Jazzland," a Manny Albam composition that Johnson recorded in 1964. Trombone and bass  unison in statements of the theme set up Allen's showcase aptly. 

Dobbins thrived in this setting, getting his solo display moment early with the tom-tom and bass-drum emphasis that opened Johnson's "Kenya," which wore its African influence gracefully. In "Naptown USA," a fleet Johnson tune based on "Back Home Again in Indiana," the pianist helped to anchor the piece closer to the original. Fedchock's knack for good programming was evident in the set's followup with the evergreen Johnson ballad called "Lament."

Several tunes climaxed in 8- and 4-bar exchanges with the drummer; Dobbins never played one that failed to flourish concisely. 

"Minor Mist" brought to light Johnson's adeptness with modal writing, and the set ended with an upbeat, late Johnson original titled "1085," the number of the trombonist's last Indianapolis address on Fox Hill Drive.


[Photos by Rob Ambrose]





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