Johnny K

Whether crooning jazz standards, riding the surf, throwing pots or making a film, Johnny K is a connoisseur of life. His love of music, adventure, art, and people prompt him to entertain and be entertained. Every endeavor is, in fact, an adventure, and to know Johnny is to experience the dips and soars, the unexpected and unbelievable, the impossible and the unforgettable. A native of California, Johnny K began his music career at the tender age of 4 when he made his first stage debut in the musical Annie Get Your Gun. He went on to other musical productions including Oliver and Anything Goes and performed with a group called Kids of the Century. He began his classical training, studying and singing with the California Boys Choir, performing Mahler at the Hollywood Bowl, Tourandot with the London Royal Opera during the Olympic Arts Festival, and Othello, Tosca, and La Boheme with the Los Angeles Opera Company. Jazz seduced Johnny at the age of sixteen. The history and class was an obvious allure, but it was the freedom of phrasing and improvisational ability that prompted Johnny to study the jazz greats. Inspired by the music of Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, and Fats Waller, Johnny began writing, recording, producing, and performing jazz standards and original numbers. He has performed at The Derby, Anaheim Hilton, Long Beach Aquarium, Hollywood Bowl, The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and The Shrine Auditorium. Passion became expertise as Johnny engineered and produced albums for Rod Stewart, Hannah Ford, Dan Franklin, Steve Tyrell, Tishara, Alodiah, Jathan Goode, and Cassandra Denver. Currently Johnny assists Music Composer Guy Moon at Moon People Music. For Johnny, the allure of the studio is only matched by the sound of the surf, and when hes not scaling chords youll find this sun-kissed crooner romancing the waves with his Peter Benjamin-shaped short board. His favorite spot: Point Dune in Malibu, CA. But like any veteran of surf Johnny will scour the shore for that perfect point break. His quest for that fluid S-turn has taken him as far as Salsa Brava in Costa Rica, San Miguel, and the famed K-38 in Baja, Mexico. Surfing and singing, to Johnny, are synonymous: the thrill of challenging the structure and force of a wave or a melody, of finding beauty in the crescendo of ocean and notes, and of knowing that every ride, every riff creates a new song and a new experience.

Like the fluid motion of jazz and surfing, Johnny found yet another outlet for inspiration in pottery. While studying music at the Interlochen School of Arts, Johnny was introduced to the world of ceramics and soon grew to love this craft that echoed the art of creation. The motion, the movement was akin to surfing; it was carving in another sense, and as with jazz Johnny could take a simple ball of clay and turn it into something remarkable by inserting his own rhythm and stylization. Johnny specializes in Raku, a Japanese firing technique wherein a piece of clay is fired and when it reaches 1000 degrees, it is pulled from the kiln and set on fire. Johnny works out of his home studio and also teaches at The Village Art Project in Studio City. He is a commissioned artist and sells his pottery at art shows in Los Angeles. Johnny graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara, earning a Bachelor of Arts and has worked in the film industry since the age of 10. He appears in the films Alligator, Bright Shining Lie, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, and the NBC television show Throb. Johnny has also worked behind the camera on Fear Factor, Wild and Crazy Kids, The Bachelorette, and Ultimate Revenge. He brings passion and creativity to everything he pursues: be it on a film set, in a pottery studio, on a perfectly crested wave, or in the recording studio. Johnny K is this centurys renaissance man. -by Jaye Pace
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