"Nature Boy" - J.J. Johnson

“Nature Boy” (PDF) from the Joe Pass & J.J. Johnson album, We’ll Be Together Again

In his method book, Exercises and Etudes for the Jazz Instrumentalist, trombonist J.J. Johnson described his straight-ahead approach to improvisation: “There will be no chord symbols, or other extraneous items to distract us from the pursuit of melodic or linear thinking, in our quest to make jazz syntax more user-friendly.” It’s an idealistic attitude coming from the creator of bebop trombone, but still a very admirable goal, nonetheless.

Much has already been written about the “Nature Boy” lifestyle of eden ahbez, the aspiring pianist and songwriter of the early hit song for Nat King Cole and who was found living under the Hollywood letters of Los Angeles when he gave Cole permission to record his song, as the story goes. Yet, ahbez’s philosophy eliminated any “extraneous” motivations or distractions from his craft, which ultimately also revealed the similarities in his music with that of contemporary Jewish composers. But when compared to Cole’s own questionable associations throughout his career, including Freemasony, his complacency with race relations, and his performance of the Spanish language, it becomes hard to criticize ahbez’s intentions for being anything other than natural.

Even Miles Davis’ 1955 version of “Nature Boy” signaled a jazz shift away from bop to cool as the trumpeter focused on his own healthy lifestyle, separate from the bustling scene in New York City. Decades later, J.J. Johnson furthered this pursuit of melodic thinking by eliminating Joe Pass’ guitar accompaniment and modeling his trombone playing after the cool styling of Davis. It’s unclear if ahbez ever heard J.J. Johnson’s rendition of “Nature Boy” but it’s probably safe to assume that he would have loved it anyway.

Recommended Reading: Exercises And Etudes For The Jazz Instrumentalist by J.J. Johnson. Published by Hal Leonard.