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Will 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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Joe "King" Oliver was Louis Armstrong's idol and mentor. Although preceded by the earliest recordings of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1917) and both the [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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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
Not to be confused with primal New Orleans bassist Bill Johnson (born circa 1872), Will Johnson was born in Lexington, KY, in 1905. Active in the music scene in and around Louisville, Johnson traveled to New York with the Dixie Ramblers near the end of 1926 and worked with a band led by drummer George Howe in 1927, the year he began a five-year stint with Luis Russell's Orchestra. From 1928 to 1930, Johnson sat in with quite an assortment of hot jazz artists. His first noteworthy recorded performances were as a member of King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators, with whom he can be heard playing both banjo and guitar on their November 1928 recording of "Slow and Steady." Johnson was a very busy session man during the years 1929 and 1930, appearing on records with Jelly Roll Morton, clarinetist Wilton Crawley, Regina "Queen" Victoria Spivey, and even with Victoria's sister Addie "Sweet Pease" Spivey. Johnson made a handful of records with Fats Waller & His Buddies in December 1929 and with trombonist J.C. Higginbotham's Six Hicks in February 1930. His singing may be heard on records he made with Jack Purvis and with trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen, with whom he recorded "You Might Get Better But You'll Never Get Well" on February 18, 1930. Amid all of this activity, Johnson was still working with Luis Russell. He recorded with Russell in 1929 and 1930 and continued to work with this Panamanian pianist and his excellent jazz orchestra until 1932. Johnson was a member of the Fess Williams band in 1933 and 1934, then worked as guitarist-for-hire until he gave up performing full-time at some point during the middle '40s. He returned to Lexington, where during the summer of 1955 he is said to have perished in a fire that destroyed everything he owned. ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide
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