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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Other Artists → Lonnie Johnson
It is a very rare occasion to see a big spread in the newspaper about the blues, so I thought I'd share this historical story of Lonnie Johnson, who Robert Johnson apparently learned a lot from.
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainm … 43836.html
Oh Angela! I ADORE LONNIE JOHNSON. As the article says, "piercing voice", indeed!!!!! Wow - he has SUCH EMOTIONAL DELIVERY! We have a pretty extensive library of the original bluesmen - Lonnie always comes out on top for me. Able to bounce back and forth between more upbeat blues tunes and those where you feel he's whispered each of his personal agonies to you in the space of a three minute song - he was one of a kind - a treasure.
One of my favorite CDs is "Blues & Ballads" - Lonnie Johnson with Elmer Snowden. They did a follow-up with "Blues, Ballads, and Jumpin' Jazz", which, I like, but, not nearly as well as the original.
From the liner notes of the first CD......
"Side One opens with HAUNTED HOUSE, a very moving blues which literally drove Lonnie Johnson to tears as he sang it in the studio. It was actually recorded towards the end of the session and, after he had concluded it, he went, almost without stopping, into MEMORIES OF YOU. This was originally planned as a blues album but Lonnie has always liked to sing ballads, particularly in recent years, and we liked this one so much that Prestige A & R man Esmond Edwards asked Lonnie to sing a couple more. The result was I'LL GET ALONG SOMEHOW and his own I FOUND A DREAM. By the time he had sung those he was so choked up from crying that we had to end the session."
Angela, I think that you, in particular, considering the music you were raised with, would love him as I do.
Libby
NPR has an article on foundation Blues Guitarist Lonnie Johnson, one
of the first to record guitar solos. There's a radio broadcast of it
on All Things Considered but I haven't been able to find it scheduled
on KQED.
"The guitar solo holds a cherished place in American culture. There's
even a popular video game that allows non-musicians to "play" along
with their idols.
But the man credited with playing some of the first recorded guitar
solos has largely been forgotten. Lonnie Johnson was one of the few
musicians to successfully straddle the worlds of blues, jazz and pop.
Now, nearly 40 years after his death, a new tribute album is trying to
restore Johnson's place as the original guitar hero. Called
Rediscovering Lonnie Johnson, the name applies as much to the people
playing the music as it does to the listeners."
[....]
"ohnson's father and nine other members of his family died in the
influenza epidemic of 1918. So Johnson headed north. He played on
riverboats and wound up in St. Louis.
By that time, he was playing guitar. In 1925, he entered a blues
contest. He won, and landed a deal with Okeh Records.
Soon, Johnson was soloing on records by Louis Armstrong and Duke
Ellington. These recordings built his reputation as the first jazz
guitarist to base his style on single-note melodies, like a horn
player — a decade before Charlie Christian or Django Reinhardt. It's
an approach he perfected on his duo recordings with white guitarist
Eddie Lang, who worked with Johnson under a pseudonym at a time when
the music industry was segregated.
Lonnie Johnson's first recording contract ran out in the early 1930s,
and he spent much of the Great Depression working other jobs to pay
the bills. "
Read the rest here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor … d=89186801
Lonnie Johnson music archive:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor … d=16322469
Peace
Bluezman
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