Johnny Maddox

Johnny Maddox (* August 4, 1927 in Gallatin, Tennessee ) is an American ragtime pianist.

The interest of Maddox in ragtime and blues was awakened early by his Aunt Zula Cothron. She played ragtime piano at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, and taught him to play the piano. At age five he already played his first public concert, and the age of twelve he began his professional career.

His friend Randy Wood, in his Randy's Record Shop he worked, founded 1950, the record label Dot Records. The very first recording this new foundation was Maddox's first single Crazy Bone Rag, entitled St. Louis Tickle on the B - side, which was sold within five weeks 22,000 times. Maddox continued to take on for Dot Records; even after the company was bought in the 1970s by the Music Corporation of America ( MCA), he remained faithful to her further. In his career he played a 50 albums and 87 singles for Dot Records and MCA. Among them were nine "gold records" with aggregate sales figure of over 11 million units.

1955 Maddox played the record, The Crazy Otto Medley a. It was composed of pieces that the German comedian, pianist and composer Fritz Schulz- Reichel, known by the stage name Otto the slope or inclined Otto wrote. The medley stayed for 14 weeks as number 2 in the charts and was the first over a million times sold ragtime recording at all. Ultimately, it was over 2 million copies. After this success, "Crazy Otto " became a nickname for Johnny Maddox as well as Schulz- Reichel.

Maddox is also known as a prominent collector of antique collectibles from the era of ragtime and Dixieland. Its collection includes more than 30,000 old gramophone records, Edison wax cylinders and piano rolls ( "piano rolls" ), but also Sheet music of over 200,000 pieces, of which Maddox in his own words 3000 pieces dominated by heart. Maddox still plays on annual concerts in Durango, Colorado.

Honors, Trivia

• The group Grateful Dead mentions in her song Ramble on Rose Crazy Otto and thus refers to Johnny Maddox.
• 1954 Maddox was honored by the Music Operators Association as America's Number One Jukebox Artist.
• The blues composer WC Handy called Maddox in 1952 as " the white boy with the colored fingers" (translated as: " The white boy with black fingers ").
• Maddox received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.