Lonnie Johnson (musician)
Alonzo " Lonnie " Johnson ( born February 8, 1899 in New Orleans, † June 16, 1970 in Toronto ) was an American blues and jazz musicians. He played the first jazz solos on the guitar and is regarded as particularly innovative guitarist, " the association ideally blues with jazz and balladry. His influence ranged from Robert Johnson to Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. "
Life and work
Lonnie Johnson learned as a child piano and violin; He began his career as a musician in various bars in New Orleans.
In 1917 he traveled to Europe to play there, and joined Will Marion Cook for some time and his band, the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, at. When he returned in 1918 to New Orleans, up to a brother his whole family had died as a victim of the Spanish flu. During this time he also began to play the guitar. Two years later, in 1920, attracted Lonnie Johnson and his surviving brother James " Steady Roll" Johnson to St. Louis, where Lonnie with the Mississippi bands Charlie Creath 's Jazz -O- Maniacs, and the Fate Marable played by.
After five years in St. Louis Lonnie learned the blues singer Mary Smith and married her (Mary Johnson has made his own recordings 1929-1936 - never, however, along with Lonnie Johnson). In the same year Lonnie won a recording contract with Okeh Records in a Blue competition. Johnson then took as a guitarist (but until 1927 also as a violinist, on the mandolin, the piano and the harmonium ) in various compilations on: In the duet with his brother James " Steady Roll" Johnson, as well as a companion to Victoria Spivey, Spencer Williams and Texas Alexander. He also participated with Bessie Smith's TOBA show on tour. Because of Johnson's ingenious use of the violin in the blues is clear that this instrument was there more common than was previously thought in historiography.
In Chicago in 1927, he worked with the Hot Five Louis Armstrong together; still he recorded with Duke Ellington and McKinney 's Cotton Pickers and multiply in a duet with Eddie Lang (1927/1929) and with Joe Venuti. The recordings with the Hot Five and Eddie Lang include early duets with banjo player Johnny St. Cyr, or the guitarist long, the convince by single-note technique, its structure and harmonies. From 1925-1932 Johnson, who emerged as a singer, was one of the most popular African-American panel Stars.
He then moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and worked with the Putney Dandridge Orchestra. Here he was, however, not very successful and had some time to work in a tire factory and a rolling mill. In 1937 he moved back to Chicago and played with Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone for Decca Records, and also worked with Lil Hardin Armstrong.
In 1939, Johnson moved to the Bluebird label, where he made recordings with Altheimer known pianists Blind John Davis, Roosevelt Sykes and Joshua. From 1941 he turned to the rhythm and blues, placing more emphasis the electric guitar a. The piece Tomorrow Night, the 1948 Lonnie recorded for the record label King, spent seven weeks on the R & B charts and was sold over three million records one of the biggest R & B hits of the year.
In 1952, he was on tour in England, but worked until the end of the 1950s as a hotel janitor before he was rediscovered in 1960 by jazz DJ Chris Albertson. In 1962, he also played with Bob Dylan, where he taught some musical tricks. In 1963 he toured with the American Folk Blues Festival Europe. From 1965 he lived in Toronto, where he recorded the album " Stompin 'at the Penny ." His last known recordings were made in 1967 in the form of two solo albums for Folkways Records.
In March 1969 Lonnie Johnson was seriously injured by a car. Then he suffered a stroke, who had hemiplegia, for which reason he could no longer play guitar. In his penultimate live performance in February 1970 Johnson was therefore accompanied vocals by guitarist Buddy Guy, whose drummer Fred Below and bassist Jim McHarg. On Bloomsday 1970 Lonnie Johnson died of sequelae of the accident.