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Home | Listen | Playlist | Reviews | Essential | News Special | Contact | Links | Local | Archives  This Official Blues Ring site is owned by Jeff Harris Previous 5 Sites | Previous | Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site | List Sites © 2004 WITR Radio 89.7 c/o Bad Dog Blues - 32 Lomb Memorial Drive - Rochester, NY 14623 | ||||||||||||||||
Lonnie
Johnson was a true musical innovator who's remarkable recording
career spanned from the 1920's through the 1960's. During
that time his musical diversity was amazing: he played piano,
guitar, violin, he recorded solo, he accompanied down home
country blues singers like Texas Alexander, he played with
Louis Armtrong's Hot Fives, recorded with Duke Ellington,
duetted with Victoria Spivey and cut a series of instrumental
duets with the white jazzman Eddie Lang that set a standard
of musicianship that remains unsurpassed by blues guitarists.
In Johnson's single-string style lie the basic precedents
of such jazz greats as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian,
while being a prime influence on bluesman as diverse as
Robert Johnson, Tampa Red and B.B. King. Thus Johnson enjoys
the rare distinction of having influenced musicians in both
the jazz and blues fields. While his guitar skills have
been justly celebrated less has been said about his bittersweet
vocals, tinged with a world weary sadness and capable of
a rare subtly and nuance. It was a perfect match for his
well crafted and imaginative songs filled with dark imagery,
longing and an unflinchingly misogynist view of woman and
love. In an interview with valerie Wilmer he described his
approach this way: "I sing city blues. My blues is
built on human beings on land, see how they live, see their
heartaches and the shifts they go through with love affairs
and things like that— that's what I write about and that's
the way I make my living. ...My style ...comes from my soul
within. The heart-aches and the things that have happened
to me in my life—that's what makes a good blues singer.
...I have my own original style, all my life I sang this
way. I have also made quite a progress in singing ballads
'cause I sing blues, ballads, swing—anything." Despite
his amazing versatility and the longevity of his career,
he remains a somewhat under appreciated figure particularly
among blues scholars and collectors. 
variously
listed as 1889, 1894 and 1900. He was one of thirteen children,
all of whom were groomed to play in their father's string
ensemble. "When I was fourteen years old I was playing
with my family. They had a band that played for weddings—it
was schottisches and waltzes and things, there wasn't no
blues in those days, people didn't think about the blues."
Johnson began his career in earnest and bought his first
guitar. In 1917 Lonnie sailed to London with a musical revue
but few details have surfaced regarding this event. When
he returned to New Orleans he was greeted with the news
that virtually his entire family had been wiped out by the
widespread influenza epidemic of 1918. Johnson moved north
to St. Louis around this period with his surviving brothers.
By this time he already had a successful career as a blues
violinist, working steadily not only in New Orleans, but
in a jazz band led by coronet player Charlie Creath. After
a falling-out with Creath, Johnson discarded the violin
and formed a trio with his brother James (Steady Roll),
who played violin, and pianist DeLoise Searcy. Big Bill
Broonzy, who played in St. Louis (but not with Johnson)
recalled that "Lonnie was playing the violin, guitar,
bass, mandolin, banjo, and all the things you could make
music on. . ." 
In
1925 Johnson won a Blues contest held at the Booker T. Washington
Theatre in St. Louis (for 18 weeks in a row, he said), sponsored
by the Okeh record company. Part of the prize was a recording
deal with the company. "I had done some singing by
then", he recalled, "but I still didn't take it
as seriously my guitar playing, and I guess I would have
done anything to get recorded - it just happened to be a
blues contest, so I sang the blues." His first session
in 1925 found him as the featured vocalist with Creath's
band and they cut "Won't Do Blues" in November
of 1925. By January 1926 Johnson's first 78, "Mr. Johnson's
Blues"/"Falling Rain Blues" was on he market.
Johnson proved an immediate success and he commenced to
recording at an astonishing pace, cutting over 130 sides
between 1925 and 1932, more than any make blues singer of
the period. In addition to his own records he he appeared
prominently on the records of other Okeh artist such as
Clara Smith, Victoria Spivey, Texas Alexander and others.
He became a respected name to jazz collectors because of
his solos on records by Louis Armstrong such as "I'm
Not Rough," "Mahogany Hall" and and on Duke
Ellington records like "Hot And Bothered" and
"The Mooche." He was also celebrated for a series
of remarkable duets with white guitarist Eddie Lang (masquerading
as Blind Willie Dunn) in 1928-29 that were utterly groundbreaking
in their ceaseless invention.
session recorded on 8th November of that year. During 1938
another session was done for a total of 16 titles. In 1939
he signed a contract with Bluebird. Johnson picked up right
where he left off, selling quite a few copies of "He's
a Jelly Roll Baker" and cutting wealth of fine material
that helped Johnson regain his former popularity. He recorded
for Bluebird until 1944. Johnson next cut a half dozen records
for the New York based Disc label in 1946 and then made
his first amplified performances on record in June 1947
for Aladdin Records. Later that year he started a fruitful
association with an emerging independent company in Cincinnati,
King Records.
The
rest of the 50's were a down time for Johnson who spent
much of the decade outside of music working construction
or toiling as a janitor. In 1959 Samuel Charters' groundbreaking
book "The Country Blues" was published which described
Johnson's situation in rather morbid terms: "He is
not a young man, and the opportunities for an older singer
to break into the teenage rock and roll craze that dominates
the industry are very slight. For Lonnie it has been a long
road, without much of an end." In actuality things
took an upswing when a year prior Johnson was rediscovered
by jazz enthusiast Chris Albertson which rekindled a major
comeback. As Albertson wrote in the liner notes to Johnson's
Bluesville debut: "I was interviewing Elmer Snowden
on my radio show when I played an old record by Lonnie which
I followed up with the remark: 'I wonder whatever happened
to Lonnie Johnson?' Elmer replied: 'I saw him in the Supermarket
the other day'. A listener then called up and said that
he worked with Lonnie at the hotel so I finally contacted
him, brought him to my apartment and had him play for me.
Having recorded his playing and singing and realizing that
he was as good as ever I took the tapes to Prestige and
Lonnie was on his way again." Between 1960 and 1962
he cut five albums for the label, three of which were produced
by Albertson, and showed that Johnson had lost little despite
several years outside of music. He spent the early 1960's
working a busy schedule that eventually took him back to
Europe for the 1963 American Folk Blues Festival. He also
made records in England, Denmark and Germany. As he said
to Valerie Wilmer in 1963: "I have enough work now
back in the States to do me for the next fifteen years."
As
the 1960's rolled on it seemed that the blues revival was
passing Johnson by. As singer Barbara Dane noted: "This
was largely true, because he was a very sophisticated player
in a moment when the world was looking for the rough and
earthy Delta players. ...Lonnie had a strong attraction
for the romantic pop songs like "I Left My Heart In
San Francisco" etc. which he played when the audiences
were looking for the gritty blues. People during the early
'60s searching for blues roots wanted to hear 'funky and
back-alley' and Lonnie played clean and uptown. Lonnie craved
respect for what he created, like any other musician. The
(white) public at that time was mostly looking for someone
who could personally introduce them to their fantasy of
black culture. In other words, he was out of tune with the
times." In 1964 Johnson went to Toronto for a club
appearance, found an ardent group of admirers and remained
there until his passing. In 1969 he was hit by a car in
Toronto where he was hospitalized for several months. He
died the following year on June 16, 1970 from the effects
of the accident. 