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Howard Johnson
Active on the West Coast in the mid-60’s, Johnson played with Buddy Rich, Gerald Wilson and Oliver Nelson. In 1968 he played in the Jazz Composers Orchestra, an epic combination of scores and extreme performances from Carla Bley, Cecil Taylor, Pharoah Sanders and Larry Coryell. 1968 also saw him forming a tuba ensemble named Substructure. He supplied the tuba solo on Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child in 1974 with the Gil Evans Orchestra. An in-depth list of associations and recordings includes John Scofield, Hank Crawford, Archie Shepp, Buddy Rich, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Abdullah Ibrahim, and John Lennon and a four year association with the NDR Big Band in Hamburg, Germany. In movies he can be heard on the soundtracks of Spike Lee’s School Daze, Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X and Clockers.
Johnson’s career makes nonsense of the so-called division between commercial and avant-garde, and he even performed a stint as conductor of the Saturday Night Live Band in the late 70’s. He also arranged for Taj Mahal, B.B. King, and Paul Butterfield and played on The Band’s Rock of Ages and The Last Waltz. In 1972, Johnson changed the name of Substructure to GRAVITY, which has released two acclaimed late-90s sessions for Verve Records.
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Bill Dixon: With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited
by Giuseppe Segala
È benvenuta questa pubblicazione nel catalogo ezz-thetics Revisited, collana che prosegue con risolutezza nella riproposta di lavori importanti, spesso fondamentali del jazz contemporaneo, concentrando in particolare la propria attenzione sugli anni Sessanta e abbinando in unico CD registrazioni storiche, opportunamente restaurate e corredate di inedite, meticolose note di copertina. Protagonista di questa uscita è Bill Dixon, figura singolare, di notevolissimo valore, la cui presenza discografica è stata purtroppo rara e saltuaria, spesso affidata alla diligente attenzione di ...
Continue ReadingBill Dixon: With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited
by Chris May
If Bill Dixon is today, in 2023, less widely remembered than other New Thing warriors such as Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler, it is partly because he had little desire for celebrity, devoting much of his energy to organizing on behalf of his fellow musicians and composers, and teaching. In 1964, midway through making the 1962-1967 recordings collected on this album, Dixon organized the historic October Revolution in Jazz at the Cellar Café in Manhattan, which ...
Continue ReadingArchie Shepp: Fire Music To Mama Too Tight Revisited
by Chris May
In 2022, it is widely accepted that, when free jazz (aka the New Thing) was in its ascent in New York in the 1960s, there was, despite superficial appearances, no fundamental incompatibility between it and the historical jazz tradition. More contentiously, revisionist historians are now suggesting that there was no real conflict between New Thing and changes-based or modal-based musicians either. They should try telling that to Archie Shepp. In autumn 1966, during the Miles Davis quintet's ...
Continue ReadingHoward Johnson and Gravity: Testimony
by Angelo Leonardi
Il Gravity di Howard Johnson è un organico dedito esclusivamente alla timbrica grave (basso tuba, principalmente) con solisti e sezione ritmica. Il progetto risale addirittura al 1968 ma registrò il suo primo disco solo nel 1996 perchè tutte le etichette lo rifiutavano. Alla fine Johnson convinse i dirigenti della Verve, che non se ne pentirono viste le ottime accoglienze che ottenne. L'anno dopo la Verve pubblicò un secondo lavoro (Right Now!, 1997) con ospite Taj Mahal ma il capitolo si ...
Continue ReadingHoward Johnson and Gravity: Testimony
by Roger Farbey
Howard Johnson really should need no introduction. He's played with many of the greats including Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Hank Crawford, Jack De Johnette and Gil Evans (his solo on “Voodoo Child" was a highlight of Evans's Jimi Hendrix tribute album). He also appeared on Carla Bley's seminal 1971 album Escalator Over The Hill. Throughout his career, Johnson has been a trailblazer in the acceptance of the tuba in modern jazz, not merely as an oompah substitute for the bass ...
Continue ReadingHoward Johnson and Gravity: Testimony
by Jack Bowers
Those who see the tuba as a sluggish, unwieldy instrument capable only of rounding out a musical composition in the lower register may have to rethink that appraisal after listening to Testimony, in which multi-instrumentalist and tuba master Howard Johnson ushers no less than half a dozen tubas and rhythm through their paces in a session that is anything but lethargic. True, the tonal range is more in the basement than the attic, but Johnson and his ...
Continue ReadingMcCoy Tyner: Tender Moments
by Donald Elfman
Now 66 years old, McCoy Tyner has made countless albums and become an elder statesman of jazz. He is certainly best known as the pianist in the transformational John Coltrane Quartet of the '60s, but it was with Blue Note recordings like this one from 1967, recently reissued in remastered form, that he revealed his personality as a composer, arranger, and soloist.Tender Moments was one of Tyner's first major explorations of the world of colors and textures available ...
Continue ReadingInterschool Orchestras Of New York Presents Its Gala Celebration: A Tribute To Howard Johnson on September 18th at Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall
Source:
All About Jazz
InterSchool Orchestras of New York (ISO) is proud to announce its 2019-2020 gala celebration, A Tribute to Howard Johnson, at Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall, September 18, 2019 at 7:30 pm. The special event will honor the musical legend, who, in his five-decade career, has played alongside luminaries in multiple genres and pioneered the voice of the tuba in jazz. The event will also feature the talents of two-time Grammy-winning musician Taj Mahal and students of ISO. All proceeds from ...
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Tribute To Howard Johnson At Merkin Hall On September 18th Featuring Taj Mahal And More! Presented By The Interschool Orchestras Of New York!
Source:
Scott Thompson Public Relations
InterSchool Orchestras of New York Presents Its Gala Celebration: A TRIBUTE TO HOWARD JOHNSON Featuring Taj Mahal, Gravity, The Levon Helm Horns, the Beartones, and Students of InterSchool Orchestras of New York InterSchool Orchestras of New York (ISO) is proud to announce its 2019-2020 gala celebration, A Tribute to Howard Johnson, at Kaufman Music Center's Merkin Hall, September 18, 2019 at 7:30 pm. The special event will honor the musical legend, who, in his five-decade career, has played alongside luminaries ...
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Howard Johnson Celebrates His 75th With New CD And Concert At The Jazz Museum In Harlem on Sunday, January 29th at 2:30pm
Source:
Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
Sun, January 29, 2017 2:30 PM- 5:00 PM EST The National Jazz Museum in Harlem 58 West 129th Street New York, NY 10027 Featuring: Howard Johnson: baritone saxophone, tuba, penny whistle; Yayoi Ikawa: piano; Melissa Slocum: bass; Newman Taylor Baker: drums. Testimony includes eight tunes ranging from soulful to funky to bluesy to cookers. Gravity’s take on Johnson’s originals as well as compositions by McCoy Tyner, Carol King, and others, testifies to the range ...
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Howard Johnson & Gravity at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music
Source:
Two for the Show Media
Howard Johnson and Gravity Will Be Performing in Concert at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music on Saturday, March 26th, 2011 at 7:30PM and 9:00 PM.
Howard Johnson tubas, baritone, pennywhistle Dave Bargeron tuba Earl McIntyre tuba Joe Daley tuba Bob Stewart tuba Neidra Johnson tuba, Vocals Carlton Holmes piano Melissa Slocum bass J.T. Lewis drums Brooklyn Conservatory of Music—Concert Hall 58 Seventh ...
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Howard Johnson's 65th Birthday Celebration at Sweet Rhythm August 4th-5th
Source:
All About Jazz
HOWARD JOHNSON'S 65th Birthday Celebration at Sweet Rhythm August 4-5
August 4th with GRAVITY!!!
Six tubas played by Velvet Brown, Bob Stewart, HOJO, Joe Daley, Randy Andos and Earl McIntyre; plus Nedra Johnson, vocals & tuba; Melissa Slocum, bass; Yayoi Ikawa, piano; and TBA, drums.
August 5th with the BearTones
Five baritone saxophones played by Lauren Sevien, Dave Schumacher, Lisa Parrott and HOJO; plus Melissa Slocum, bass; Yayoi Ikawa, piano; and TBA, drums.
Sweet ...
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Harlem Speaks Features Howard Johnson February 9, 2006
Source:
All About Jazz
Howard Johnson: February 9, 2006 Paul Robeson, Jr.: February 23, 2006 New York, NY--Multi-instrumentalist Howard Johnson, best known as a top tuba player in jazz, is the Jazz Museum in Harlem's Harlem Speaks series guest on February 9, 2006.
Born August 7, 1941, in Montgomery, Alabama, Johnson moved to Massillon, Ohio in 1944 with his family. He taught himself baritone saxophone in 1954, and learned tuba a year later. Johnson plays other reeds and trumpet as well. He ...
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CONCERT: Influences-Billy Strayhorn w/Gary Bartz & Howard Johnson, 1/27 NYC
Source:
All About Jazz
The American Music Group presents
INFLUENCES:BILLY STRAYHORN Weill Hall at CARNEGIE HALL Saturday, January 27, 2001, 8:30pm 154 West 57th Street, New York City call CarnegieCharge (212) 247-7800, tickets $15
featuring: Gary Bartz-alto saxophone & clarinet Howard Johnson-tuba, baritone sax & bass clarinet Dennis Mitcheltree-tenor saxophone, clarinet Johannes Wallmann-piano Jesse Crawford-bass Bill McClellan-drums
A performance of Billy Strayhorn compositions arranged ...
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Howard Johnson
Instrument: Tuba
Born: August 7, 1941
Died: January 9, 2021
