Buddy Johnson

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Woodrow Wilson "Buddy" Johnson (* 10. January 1915 in Darlington , South Carolina ; † 9. February 1977 in New York City ) was an American jazz - and rhythm-and-blues - pianist and bandleader .

Live and act

Buddy Johnson visited Paris in 1937 as the pianist of the Cotton Club Revue Tramp Band, founded his own ensemble in 1939, with which he appeared in nightclubs and in the same year a number of titles such as “When You're Out with Me” and “Stop Pretending (So Hip You See) ”for Decca , with Courtney Williams (trombone), Don Stovall (alto saxophone) and Sonny Fredericks (tenor saxophone) as soloists. In 1941 musicians Shad Collins , Scoville Brown , Leonard Ware and Kenny Clarke were added; In 1944 he expanded the band to a 14-piece orchestra that played mainly in the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem and toured the southern United States .

The best-known recordings of his orchestra, whose permanent singer was his sister Ella Johnson , include the tracks "Please Mr. Johnson" (1940), "One of them Good Ones" (1944), "When My Man Comes Come" (1944, his first hit on the R&B charts ), "Li 'Dog" (1947) and "Shufflin' and Rollin '" (1952); another band vocalist was Joe Medlin . In 1960 he worked on Clark Terry's album Color Changes on the Candid label . The last recordings of the Buddy Johnson And His Orchestra were made in February 1961 for Mercury Records ("(Ha Ha Baby) The Last Laugh's on You" / "Good Time Man").

Carlo Bohländer describes Johnson and his drummer Cliff James as a pioneer of rhythm and blues , in whose style he played from 1939. Buddy Johnson should not be confused with the trombonist of the same name from the Excelsior Brass Band (approx. 1870–1927) and the tenor saxophonist Budd Johnson .

Discographic notes

  • Buddy Johnson & Ella Johnson 1953--1964 (Bear Family Records)

literature

References and comments

  1. ↑ At the Decca session on March 23, 1944 ( You Better Leave Right Now, I Still Love YouJukebox Lil ), the Buddy Johnson Orchestra played: Prince Jones, Isaac Larkin, John Lawton, Willis Nelson (tp), Bernard Archer, Leonard Briggs , Jonas Walker (tb), Joe O'Laughlin, Maxwell Lucas (as), Frank Henderson, Jimmy Stanford (ts) Teddy "Cherokee" Conyers (bar), Buddy Johnson (p, vcl), Arnold Adams (git), Leon Spann ( kb), Gus Young (dr), Ella Johnson (vcl)
personal data
SURNAME Johnson, buddy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johnson, Woodrow Wilson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Darlington , South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1977
Place of death New York City