Born in Nebraska in 1953, Johnson took up bass at the age of 16, having already studied piano and cello. By that time, his family had moved to Denton, Texas, and Johnson quickly became the principle bassist in the All State Youth Orchestra of Texas. He continued his formal education in the celebrated music program at the University of North Texas, where pianist Lyle Mays was a classmate. At 19, Johnson began performing professionally with the Fort Worth Symphony. Five years later, he was on the road with the Woody Herman Band.

A stop with Herman in New York City marked a major turning point for Johnson, where he was invited to sit in with Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard. In 1978, he joined Evans' trio, remaining with him until the pianist's death two years later. Johnson appears on a half dozen albums recorded with Evans, including the Grammy®-winning We Will Meet Again and last year's six-CD box set of live recordings, Turn Out the Stars, weaving his distinctively warm tones and melodic lines into the complex harmonies of the Trio.

"I was still a very young player at that point," Johnson says. "Technically, I was prepared for the job, but I learned a lot about professionalism with Bill, and then there are all the nuances of working with a musician on that level, night after night, including the subtle dynamics of playing in a group. I matured a lot - my confidence grew, my sense of timing improved, my sense of concentration heightened, and my knowledge of harmony expanded."

Over the past 20 years, Johnson has performed on more than 100 albums. Many have been with pianists, including Eliane Elias, Lyle Mays, Fred Hersch, and Enrico Pieranunzi, although Johnson has also recorded with saxophonists Stan Getz, Joe Lovano, and Michael Brecker, drummers Peter Erskine and Paul Motian, vibist Gary Burton, and bandoneon master Dino Saluzzi. But many of his most notable recordings have been with guitarists. "When I had an opportunity to do something on my own," Johnson explains, "I wanted to do something completely different from my previous association with Bill Evans, so as not to try to recreate the experience I had with that trio. When I was a kid, before I knew I was going to be a musician, I listened to all kinds of music, from the Beatles to Bob Dylan, Beethoven to Ravel, the Allman Brothers to Jimi Hendrix; I had rather eclectic taste. By the time I was seventeen, though, I was heavily into jazz, mainly Bill Evans and Miles Davis. Writing for this two guitar format brings together all my earliest musical influences, my musical 'first loves'."

In addition to his long membership in guitarist John Abercrombie's trio, Johnson formed two guitar-oriented bands that rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Bass Desires, with guitarists Bill Frisell and John Scofield, recorded two albums for ECM - a self-titled debut in 1986 and Second Sight in 1987; Right Brain Patrol, initially with Ben Monder on guitar, then with Wolfgang Muthspiel, cut two for jMT - a self-titled disc in 1993 and Magic Labyrinth in 1995. Johnson also recorded Two By Four (Emarcy) in 1991.

On The Sound of Summer Running, his sixth recording as a leader, Johnson returns to the two-guitarist alignment inaugurated in Bass Desires. "I wanted to continue that idea," Johnson explains. "Bill Frisell and I had played together, but neither of us had played with Pat Metheny, so this was a first. Joey Baron was a likely choice as the drummer because of his long association with Frisell and he's one of my favorite musicians."

Produced by Lee Townsend, The Sound of Summer Running takes its title from a classic Ray Bradbury short story of the same name, and might be considered Johnson's "roots" album. "I wanted to write music that spoke clearly and simply to the heart," the bassist says. "Once I decided to do kind of a 'heartland' album, the writing flowed fairly freely." Johnson penned six new compositions, and brought in one he had co-written with Eliane Elias. Metheny, who had recorded his own musical heartland album with bassist Charlie Haden, Beyond the Missouri Sky, contributed one piece; Frisell, who recorded with bluegrass and country musicians on his recent Nashville, added two compositions. "Those guys are so diverse and their ranges are so large," Johnson says, "they can play with authority anything from free improvisation to Country & Western. Both of them are master musicians, and I knew they were going to play well together. But I didn't realize how well until I was in the studio with them. They floored me on every take."

At the heart of The Sound of Summer Running are Johnson's unique musical approach and the resonant voice of his bass. Rooted in the melodic innovations of the legendary early Bill Evans Trio bassist Scott La Faro, Johnson's playing speaks in its own flexible language. In the words of Bass Player magazine, it "strikes a delicate balance between power and lyricism." Whether providing rich counter-melodies to Metheny and Frisell's guitar lines on the bluesy "Union Pacific", soloing resolutely against Baron's impeccable brush work on "With My Boots On" and fleetly on "For A Thousand Years", further enriching the textures of Frisell's "The Adventures of Max and Ben" (on which Metheny plays an unusual 42-string guitar), or probing the deepest emotional implications of "In a Quiet Place", the ballad he wrote with Eliane Elias, the bassist makes his instrument sing with uncommon eloquence.

Johnson gives his rare Italian bass, built in 1739, ample credit. "It has a wonderfully warm, buttery tone," he says. But throughout the album, it is evident that the golden sound welling up through the crystalline web of guitars and drums emanates primarily from Johnson's fertile imagination and dexterous fingers. The sum result on The Sound of Summer Running is a portrait of a complete musician whose boundless creativity shines in the vanguard of today's jazz musicians.

Copyright © PolyGram Records, Inc.