Bill Johnson (double bass player)

Bill Johnson

William Manuel "Bill" Johnson (* 10. August 1874 in Talladega , Alabama ; † 3. December 1972 in New Braunfels , Texas ) was an American jazz - bassist and band leader of the early New Orleans jazz , founder of "The Original Creole Orchestra" and from " King Oliver 's Creole Jazz Band".

Johnson started playing guitar around 1890 and also played the banjo . Around 1900 he also performed with the double bass. He claimed to have invented the more energetic "slapping" style of bass playing (compared to "pizzicato" plucking) after breaking his bow. He then taught this style not only to bassists in New Orleans , but also in Chicago in the 1920s.

Johnson first played in the Olympia Band . He was the founder (with Jimmy Palao ) and manager of the first New Orleans band that left the city to tour beyond the borders of the surrounding area, the "The Original Creole Orchestra", with which he was touring from 1912 to 1918 and in which including Freddie Keppard played. As early as 1909, however, he played with his own band in California. He was also behind the founding of the “King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band” in the “Royal Garden” in the early 1920s in Chicago, in which he played bass until it broke up in 1923. He then played in his own bands and in some of Johnny Dodds' bands, and recorded a lot in Chicago until the late 1920s. Sometimes under a different name, he was active as a musician until the 1950s. Then he moved to Mexico , where he worked in "import-export" on the Mexican border.

Jelly Roll Morton was the longtime boyfriend (after Morton they were also married) and later business partner of Bill Johnson's sister, Anita Johnson Gonzales. His brother Ollie "Dink" Johnson was also a musician (including clarinet, piano). B. worked as a drummer in the "Original Creole Orchestra".

literature

Lawrence Gushee Pioneers of Jazz - The Story of the Creole Band , Oxford University Press 2005.

Web links

Commons : Bill Johnson - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Contrary to some secondary sources, which assume a year of birth of 1872, the following reasons speak for a year of birth in 1874: the census closest to birth in 1880 (carried out in June of this year) lists him at the age of 5 and his mother at 21 years (16 years not unlikely at the birth of the child, possibly 14 sooner); In the 1900 census, too, the age difference of 16 years between mother and son is correct, although both are given as another two years younger; see for the Johnson family as a whole http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/genealogy.html#anifam
he himself also gave August 10th 1874 as his birthday when he was drafted into the First World War : http://www.doctorjazz.co .uk / draftcards2.html # musdcwmj

personal data
SURNAME	Johnson, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Johnson, William Manuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz band leader and bassist
DATE OF BIRTH	August 10, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH	Talladega , Alabama
DATE OF DEATH	3rd December 1972
Place of death	New Braunfels , Texas

[1] Contrary to some secondary sources, which assume a year of birth of 1872, the following reasons speak for a year of birth in 1874: the census closest to birth in 1880 (carried out in June of this year) lists him at the age of 5 and his mother at 21 years (16 years not unlikely at the birth of the child, possibly 14 sooner); In the 1900 census, too, the age difference of 16 years between mother and son is correct, although both are given as another two years younger; see for the Johnson family as a whole http://www.doctorjazz.co.uk/genealogy.html#anifam
he himself also gave August 10th 1874 as his birthday when he was drafted into the First World War : http://www.doctorjazz.co .uk / draftcards2.html # musdcwmj