Lonnie Johnson
Eddie Lang and Lonnie Johnson are the two most important six string guitarists of the nineteen twenties (Johnson played six and twelve string guitar). First generation jazz and blues musicians, both were unique and individual stylists. Lang, who first brought the guitar to the forefront in pop and jazz when he made some dazzling single string, chord and rhythm contributions to recordings in 1924-1926, was the more versatile of the two. A powerhouse rhythm player and accompanist, he took a predominantly “bluesy” approach to his single string solos. The harmonic inventions Lang adapted to the instrument form the basis of the modern guitar textbook.
Lang’s senior by eight years, Johnson was, if anything, a virtuoso. A born “picker”, he could dance up and down, and back and forth on the fret board endlessly at any tempo (which he too often tended to do). Johnson’s picking (and creative) “zone” was best displayed on medium and up tempo pieces. His first solo guitar recording; “To Do This You Gotta Know How” (August, 1926), shows off his uncanny ability to sustain and rhythmically propel an unaccompanied piece by incorporating single string and chords (with a particular preference for diminished chords).
To Do This You Gotta Know How | mp3 | 748KB
Not as strong an accompanist as he was soloist, his strength’s were such that when in the company of genius, most notably his duet with Louis Armstrong on the 1927 Hot Five recording of “Hotter Than That,” Johnson’s rapid fire single string rhythm riffs & licks concurrent with Armstrong’s pulsating & swinging vocal make it one of the essential recordings of the jazz age. Truly a breathtaking display of talent!
Hotter Than That | mp3 | 724KB
For a while both Lang and Johnson were employed as staff guitarists and soloists by the same record company, OKeh; Lang for the pop and jazz sides recorded for the white record market, while Johnson performed much the same role for OKeh’s “race” record series (for the black market). They can be heard individually on a number of recordings produced by the company between 1925 and 1929, and together on a handful of sides recorded in 1928 and 1929.
Less successful on the fiddle, banjo, and piano, Johnson was a sensitive and thoughtful singer. Two television appearances, broadcast thirty years past his “classic” period, are fine examples of his art.
Though he was less successful on the fiddle, banjo, and piano, Lonnie Johnson was a sensitive and thoughtful singer. When accompanied solely by his own guitar, as seen and heard on the two videos broadcast forty years past his “classic” period, you can’t help but being drawn into these “from the heart” performances by this very gifted artist.
Out of the music business for a good portion of the nineteen fifties, Johnson was “rediscovered”, surprisingly, in Eddie Lang’s hometown of Philadelphia. Lonnie Johnson returned to performing music for the last ten years of his life.
A third player, Teddy Bunn made his entrance at the close of the nineteen twenties with a very developed “swinging” single string solo style and a “funky” sense of rhythm that owed a lot to both Lang and Johnson. The most “authentic” blues player of the three, Bunn hailed from of all places, Long Island, New York. Forgotten now, he was, prior to Charlie Christian’s arrival in 1939, the jazz guitarist of the swing era. (mp, 2010)
Lonnie Johnson Biography
Lonnie Johnson: Life Of Eddie Lang; Down Beat, May, 1939.
The Complete Lonnie Johnson/Eddie Lang Recordings
Lonnie Johnson on Film
Lonnie Johnson Biography
This Lonnie Johnson monograph from the booklet contained in Time-Life Records’ 1980 Giants Of Jazz box set; The Guitarists, with biography and notes on the music by Marty Grosz and Lawrence Cohn, is well written, but oddly never mentions his association or recordings with Eddie Lang.
In January 1959, jazz critic Chris Albertson was working as a disc jockey at a radio station in Philadelphia. One night, after playing several Lonnie Johnson sides he particularly admired, he wondered aloud-on the air-what had become of this legendary figure, who had dropped out of sight after a 1952 concert appearance in England. Shortly Albertson received a telephone call from a janitor in the downtown Benjamin Franklin Hotel. One of his fellow workers, he said, was named Lonnie Johnson and seemed to be about the age of the great bluesman, though he never talked about music. The janitor had noticed, however, that Johnson was very careful of his hands and always wore gloves to protect them.
Albertson went to the hotel the next day and recognized the guitarist immediately from pictures he had seen. Soon, with Albertson’s help, Johnson made an album with Prestige, landed a recording contract, and quit the $65-a-week job to accept a $350-a-week booking at the Chicago Playboy Club. He was launched on what was to be the last of his periodic musical comebacks.
Like many of his colleagues from the early days of jazz, Johnson endured a number of professional reversals as a result of shifting popular taste, but it is a testament to his virtuosity-and his versatility-that his occasionally interrupted career lasted more than a half a century. He was born Alonzo Johnson in New Orleans possibly as early as 1889, though Johnson was often imprecise about his age. By his teens he was playing guitar, violin and banjo in his family’s band. Later, he played violin and guitar duets with his brother, pianist James (Steady Roll) Johnson, at local theatres and Storyville night spots. He moved on from family ensembles to work in Europe from 1917 to 1919; when he returned to New Orleans he found that all but one member of his large family has died in the post-World War I influenza epidemic.
Desolate, Johnson left New Orleans and found work on Mississippi riverboats with such bandleaders as Charlie Creath and Fate Marable, for whom Louis Armstrong had played a few years before. He settled in St. Louis and played in local bands while working days in a steel mill. At this time, said blues singer Big Bill Broonzy, who knew him, “Lonnie was playing violin, guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo and all the things you could make music on”-not least the piano, on which he was an expressive, though limited, blues player. With Creath’s band, Johnson had recorded a few sides as a vocalist and violinist, and then in 1925 he won a blues contest sponsored by OKeh records. As part of his prize, he was signed to an OKeh recording contract.
Mr. Johnson's Blues | mp3 | 640KB
For the next seven years he was an OKeh house musician, recording steadily, mostly on guitar. In addition to accompanying singers like Victoria Spivey, Clara Smith and Spencer Williams, he was featured on sides with McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five. Speaking of Hot Five recordings, musicologist Gunther Schuller has written: “Four sides had the great guitarist Lonnie Johnson as an added starter. And what a difference he makes! Armstrong is now no longer outnumbered four to one but has a strong ally. Johnson’s swinging, rhythmic backing and his remarkable two-bar exchanges with Armstrong are certainly one of the highlights of classic jazz.”
Despite all his recordings, Johnson still found time to tour with various other artists, including Bessie Smith. He made the rounds of the Keith theaters accompanying comedians, and he worked the grueling black vaudeville circuit run by the Theater Owners’ Booking Association. In 1932 he left OKeh and settled in Cleveland, where he played occasionally with Putney Dandridge’s band and on local radio programs. After five years he moved to Chicago; there he worked with Johnny Dodds and played extended bookings in several local night spots.
In the 1940’s Johnson began singing ballads rather than blues, accompanying himself on electric guitar. He had a hit record, Tomorrow Night, in 1948, and in 1952 he toured England. But soon after his return he found himself again isolated from the musical scene and apparently doomed to obscurity as rock and roll took over popular music. When Chris Albertson found him in 1959, Johnson had not performed in public for several years.
Even his comeback in the 1960s was no unbroken string of triumphs. He was twice soloist in Town Hall concerts-one with Duke Ellington-and he made a number of critically praised albums for Prestige, but he lived beyond his means, and his career suffered.
Johnson’s formidable talents, however, pulled him through one scrape after another. Albertson remembers one particularly striking example. “I got a call one day from an automobile insurance company. They wanted a commercial for a black radio station and they gave me about 10 facts they wanted in it. Lonnie sat down and in no time had made up a blues that lasted exactly a minute, rhymed perfectly, made sense and contained every fact they wanted.”
In 1965, Johnson moved to Toronto, where he was popular with local blues fans, and for four years he made a living on the coffeehouse circuit with occasional breaks for concerts and tours. Then, in 1969, he was window-shopping in Toronto when a car jumped a curb onto the sidewalk and hit him. He survived the accident, but never fully recovered from the injuries or a stroke that sent him back to the hospital for months. He died alone in his Toronto apartment a year later.
Johnson was the first guitarist to cross over from the blues tradition into jazz. As part of the New Orleans invasion of the East, he was a musician in the right place at the right time, and he proved himself good enough to assume a featured role in several jazz contexts-with Armstrong and Ellington, and later with Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone. Johnson inspired few imitators in jazz, possibly because nobody else had quite the instinct for fusing jazz and blues. He remains distinctive-and perhaps unique-in the history of the jazz guitar.
Giants Of Jazz; The Guitarists, biography and notes on the music by Marty Grosz and Lawrence Cohn, Time-Life Records, 1980.
Working With Lang Rated as ‘Greatest Thrill’ by Johnson,
by Lonnie Johnson,
Three Deuces Club, Chicago.
Chicago - I well remember Eddie Lang. He was the nicest man I ever worked with. Eddie and I got together many a time in the old OKeh record studios in New York, and we even made sides together with just two guitars. I valued those records more than anything in the world. But one night not long ago someone stole them from my house.
Eddie was a fine man. He never argued. He didn’t tell me what to do. He would ask me. Then, if everything is okay, we’d sit down and get to jiving. I’ve never seen a cat like him since. He could play guitar better than anyone I know. And I’ve seen plenty in my day.
At the time I knew Mr. Lang, I was working for the Columbia people in New York. That’s all I did-just make sides. But the sides I made with Eddie Lang were my greatest experience.
Article(s): Life Of Eddie Lang; Down Beat, May, 1939.
The Complete Lonnie Johnson/Eddie Lang Recordings
Document Records offers a (nearly) complete set of Lonnie Johnson’s studio recordings (1925-1932). The JSP cd release; Lonnie Johnson, Playing With The Strings - JSP CD 335, includes integral sessions with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Chocolate Dandies not found on the Lonnie Johnson Document Records series.
The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic MD8-213, (2002), present all of the Lonnie Johnson/Eddie Lang sessions in best quality as the transfers were sourced from the original metal parts. www.mosaicrecords.com
Texas Alexander
November 15, 1928
OKeh Record Co., New York City
Alger (Texas) Alexander (vocal), Lonnie Johnson (guitar), Eddie Lang (aka Blind Willie Dunn) (guitar).
401330-A Work Ox Blues - OKeh 8658
401331-A The Risin’ Sun - OKeh 8673
Over nine days Eddie participated in six blues sessions for OKeh: Gladys Bentley-1, Johnson & Lang-1, Clarence Williams-1, Texas Alexander-3. The sessions with Alger “Texas” Alexander placed Eddie for the first and last time in his recording career in the company of a rural blues singer. Alexander’s roots were in Texas, his family sharecropper’s. First a field hand, then a Dallas warehouse worker, he’d sing on street corners during the day, and in bars, and dives at night. Unable to play himself, it was said he carried a guitar with him in the hope of running into someone who’d be able to provide accompaniment. Word of his slow moaning blues style traveled from Dallas to New York, and OKeh Records sent for him in August 1927, and again in November 1928. Lonnie Johnson was the first to be given the task of trying to accompany the singer as “Texas” tended to skip bars while singing, potentially leaving his accompanists in the dust if they weren’t quick to recover.
For the November session, Rockwell added Eddie to the date, making it the first recording featuring Johnson and Lang performing together. (The two guitarists got together a few days later for an official guitar duet session). In the second to last chorus of WORK OX BLUES, just after Lang takes over the obligato duties from Johnson, the singer skips measures not once but twice, leaving Eddie with little choice but to return to his chair and continue playing chords.
Notes by Mike Peters from The Classic Columbia And Okeh Joe Venuti And Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic MD8-213 (2002).www.mosaicrecords.com
Lonnie Johnson and Blind Willie Dunn
November 17, 1928
OKeh Record Co., New York City
Lonnie Johnson (guitar), Eddie Lang (aka Blind Willie Dunn) (guitar).
401338-B Two Tone Stomp (Johnson-Lang) - OKeh 8637
401339-B Have To Change Keys To Play These Blues (Johnson-Lang) OKeh 8637
Have To Change Keys To Play These Blues | mp3 | 744KB
Blind Willie Dunn’s Gin Bottle Four
May 1, 1929
OKeh Record Co., New York City
Tommy Dorsey (trumpet), poss. J.C. Johnson (piano, orchestra bells), Eddie Lang (aka Blind Willie Dunn) (guitar), Lonnie Johnson (guitar), unknown (percussion), unknown (vocal “mouth percussion” on 401843).
401842-B Jet Black Blues - OKeh 8689
401843-B Blue Blood Blues - OKeh 8689
Blind Willie Dunn’s Gin Bottle Four
May 7, 1929
OKeh Record Co., New York City
Lonnie Johnson (guitar), Eddie Lang (aka Blind Willie Dunn) (guitar).
401865-A Guitar Blues (Johnson-Lang) - OKeh 8711
Lonnie Johnson and Blind Willie Dunn
May 8, 1929
OKeh Record Co., New York City
Lonnie Johnson (guitar), Eddie Lang (aka Blind Willie Dunn) (guitar).
401869-A A Handful Of Riffs (Johnson-Dunn) - OKeh 8695
Record Review; The Melody Maker (UK), May, 1933
Ed Lang and Lonnie Johnson: “A Handful Of Riffs” (Parlophone R 1496)
For those incurables who must have vigour at all costs there is a further explanation of the Italo-Negro act, Eddie Lang and Lonnie Johnson in A Handful of Riffs. You can have great fun trying to sort out which notes are played by which player: as a matter of fact, it is not a difficult task; for Lonnie Johnson plays all the out-of-tune passages and Lang confines himself to a swinging background such as only he among all guitar players could produce. The result is a record with tremendous vitality and a certain naïve charm.
Source: Mike’s Disc-course, The Melody Maker (UK), May, 1933. (Mike=Spike Hughes)
A Handful Of Riffs | mp3 | 736KB
Blind Willie Dunn’s Gin Bottle Four
May 8, 1929
OKeh Record Co., New York City
Eddie Lang (aka Blind Willie Dunn) (guitar), Lonnie Johnson (guitar).
401870-A Blue Guitars (Johnson-Lang) - OKeh 8711
Lonnie Johnson and Blind Willie Dunn
May 15, 1929
OKeh Record Co., New York City
Lonnie Johnson (guitar), Eddie Lang (aka Blind Willie Dunn) (guitar).
401866-D Bull Frog Moan (Johnson-Dunn) - OKeh 6895
Record Review; The Melody Maker (UK), May, 1933
Ed Lang and Lonnie Johnson: “Bullfrog Moan” (Parlophone R 1496)
The backing, Bullfrog Moan, is a rather more desultory piece, with a heap of Langerie which is well worth listening for. Personally, I would be tempted to invest in this record for the sake of the harmonics in the coda, but then I have expensive tastes. Or, if you should not consider harmonics enough, may I tempt you with Eddie Lang’s imitation (instrumental) of a bullfrog? Anyhow, now that Lang solos and the Lang-Johnson record have been issued, with promise of more to come, I shall expect to hear, as a change from the rather rude mail I have received of late, that the more affluent among my readers have bought a special album and built a special shelf to house their collection of Lang records. They deserve it.
Source: Mike’s Disc-course, The Melody Maker (UK), May, 1933. (Mike=Spike Hughes)
Bullfrog Moan | mp3 | 756KB
Blind Willie Dunn and Lonnie Johnson
October 9, 1929
OKeh Record Co., New York City
Eddie Lang (aka Blind Willie Dunn) (guitar), Lonnie Johnson (guitar).
403039-A Deep Minor Rhythm (Dunn-Johnson) - OKeh 8743
403042-A Midnight Call (Blues) (Johnson-Dunn) - OKeh 8818
403043-A Hot Fingers (Dunn-Johnson) - OKeh 8743
403044-B Blue Room (Blues) (Johnson-Dunn) - OKeh 8818
Lonnie Johnson on Film
Lonnie Johnson (1960s)
Too Late To Cry (acoustic guitar)
Lonnie Johnson (1963)
Another Night To Cry (el-guitar)
Lonnie Johnson Biography
Lonnie Johnson: Life Of Eddie Lang; Down Beat, May, 1939.
The Complete Lonnie Johnson/Eddie Lang Recordings
Lonnie Johnson on Film