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Otis Johnson
Appearances
![Satch Plays Fats: The Music of Fats Waller [Bonus Tracks]](/cache/JS/e2/130x130_on-sale_e20801zh2ls.png)
Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller only worked together twice, briefly in 1925 in Erskine Tate's band and four years later in the New York [more]
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Of less importance than the concurrent release of The Best of Louis Armstrong: The Hot Five and Seven Recordings is Satch Blows the Blues, since it only distills the great [more]
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Draw up a list of some of the top jazz artists of all time, and the legend featured in this recording would likely be at the top of that list. Louis [more]
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This four-CD set does its best to summarize Louis Armstrong's career during 1923-1934, reissuing 81 of his finest recordings. The problem is that virtually [more]
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In conjunction with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' ten-part 2000 PBS special, Columbia/Legacy and Verve teamed up to issue a special series of [more]
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In conjunction with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' ten-part 2000 PBS special, Columbia/Legacy and Verve teamed up to issue a special series of reissues covering much of [more]
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"Armstrong jovially balanced his calling as a musician with his job as an entertainer, applying his virtuosity while showing audiences a good time." —New York Times
In conjunction with the release of Ken Burns' ten-part, 19-hour epic PBS documentary {#Jazz}, Columbia issued 22 single-disc compilations devoted to jazz's most significant [more]
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![Swing That Music! [Jazz Archives]](/cache/JS/c3/130x130_on-sale_c3534054bnc.png)
Two of the selections ("Jeepers Creepers" and "Tiger Rag") on this CD are taken from a radio broadcast that matched Louis Armstrong in 1938 with the great pianist [more]
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The Proper label continues its stellar jazz box-set series with this mammoth four-disc survey of drummers from early jazz to [more]
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Biography
The career of this classic jazz trumpeter can be divided into two sections, before the second World War and after. The second part was no career at all, at least in terms of the music business, unless Johnson slipped in a few performances of "Taps". While the careers of many of his peers include a return to full-time music following the end of hostilities, Johnson is an example of a player who simply stayed with the military. His background in the National Guard might have made him more prone to such a decision; at any rate, he was eventually posted to Colorado Springs, where his trumpet seems to have stayed in the case.
This horn and the man blowing it had begun a busy round of professional engagements in 1928 with groups such as Gene Rodgers' Revellers, Henri Saparo, Eugene Kennedy and Charlie Skeete. Based out of New York City, Johnson began a two-year stretch with Luis Russell in 1929, bouncing around between this band, the previously mentioned Kennedy and the superb Benny Carter in 1934. In the mid '30s Johnson numbered as one of Charlie Turner's Arcadians as well as working with Willie Bryant. His final and perhaps most important engagements pre-blitzkrieg were with the orchestra assembled by Louis Armstrong in 1938 and 1939 and the Don Redman band in 1936, 1937 and 1940. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
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