"We'll Be Together Again" - J.J. Johnson

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

The contributions of Native voices in American popular music was not widely recognized until the 1960s Civil Rights movement, and indigenous folk songs, hymns, and marches had already been utilized by European composers and banned by the American government for nearly a century. Despite this oppression, musicians like Cherokee pianist Carl T. Fischer studied classical and jazz traditions that influenced his 1945 American standard, “We’ll Be Together Again,” written with singer Frankie Laine and revived during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. As is too often the case, most of Fischer’s musical career is undocumented and has only received posthumous recognition, such as his musical contribution to the 1954 Ohio drama, Tecumseh!

For his shared part of this recording, J.J. Johnson’s performance equates only to a complete chorus of the tune, taking the melody in the bridge, then improvising a half-chorus and the final 8 bars. The song form consists mostly of ii-V7-I changes, allowing Johnson to utilize a melodious chromaticism in his lines - exchanging the lyricism of this ballad for free-floating melodic patterns.

Here’s a YouTube trailer for Rumble, a music documentary that explores Native musicians in American music:

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