Greg Black JJ mouthpiece

[Dsbones]

Has anyone spent time playing the JJ model Greg makes?

[JeffBone44]

Does JJ stand for JJ Johnson?

[TromboneMonkey]

Yes it's a replica of the Giardinelli JJ Johnson artist model.

Greg Black is also making replicas of the Urbie, Jiggs, Maynard, Kai, and a few other Giardinelli artist models.

They look really cool! I've yet to try one though. I liked the original Giardinelli JW 11 I tried.

[Monkhouse]

Yes it's a replica of the Giardinelli JJ Johnson artist model.

Greg Black is also making replicas of the Urbie, Jiggs, Maynard, Kai, and a few other Giardinelli artist models.

They look really cool! I've yet to try one though. I liked the original Giardinelli JW 11 I tried.

I thought JJ played a King M21 or M31 (can't remember which), or was his deal with Giardinelli later in his career?

[Doug Elliott]

JJ didn't have a "deal" with Giardinelli, any more than Urbie, Jiggs, Maynard, or Kai have "deals" with Greg Black or any other company that names mouthpieces after players. It's marketing, that's all.

[slidefunk]

JJ played a King M21 starting in the 1950s until his death in 2001.

[dukesboneman]

When I studied with Jiggs and Kai , they both played their Giardinelli Models and sounded great on them.
I owned the Jiggs model , it was just too shallow for me
Worked for him though

[Vegasbound]

Buddy Morrow also used a giardinelli custom prior to moving Jettone, but most NY based players must have gone to him at sometime back in the day.