Edwin Lawrence "Eddie" Johnson (December 11, 1920 – April 7, 2010) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

tenor saxophonist The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

Early life

Johnson was born in

Napoleonville, Louisiana Napoleonville is a village and the parish seat of Assumption Parish, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The population was 660 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Pierre Part Micropolitan Statistical Area. The village is best known as the loca ...

, and moved with his family to Chicago at the age of two. As a teenager, Johnson sang in a vocal group. He graduated from Englewood High School and attended Wilson Junior College. In 1938, he and his bandmates were recruited to play for

Kentucky State College Kentucky State University (KSU and KYSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Frankfort, Kentucky. Founded in 1886 as the State Normal School for Colored Persons, and becoming a land-grant college in 1890, KSU is the second-ol ...

, where Johnson received a scholarship and attended for eight months.

Career

In 1946, Johnson joined trumpeter

Cootie Williams Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams (July 10, 1911 – September 15, 1985) was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter. Biography Born in Mobile, Alabama, Williams began his professional career at the age of 14 with the Yo ...

and His Orchestra, appearing on several

Capitol A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerous ...

and Majestic

recordings A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

, until leaving to join

Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as " the King of the Jukebox", he earned his high ...

and His Tympany Five. He also played with

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

and

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

. In 1981 and 1999, he released albums of new material, the latter on Delmark.

Eugene Chadbourne Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic. Life and career Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar when he was eleven or twel ...

, Eddie Johnsonat

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Discography

* ''Indian Summer'' (

Nessa Nessa Diab, known mononymously as Nessa, is an American radio and TV personality and television host. Early life and education Nessa was born to an Egyptian father and mother. She has two brothers. She grew up in Southern California but her ...

, 1981) * ''Love You Madly'' ( Delmark, 1999) With James Moody * ''

Last Train from Overbrook ''Last Train from Overbrook'' is an album by saxophonist James Moody recorded in 1958 and released on the Argo label.Edwards, D. & Callahan, MArgo Album Discography, Part 1: Jazz Series (1956-1965)accessed February 4, 2013 Reception The Allmusi ...

'' (

Argo In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of sour ...

, 1958)

References

1920 births 2010 deaths People from Napoleonville, Louisiana American rhythm and blues musicians American jazz saxophonists American male saxophonists African-American saxophonists Jump blues musicians Nessa Records artists Delmark Records artists Jazz musicians from Louisiana American male jazz musicians 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century American saxophonists Jazz musicians from Chicago Jazz musicians from Illinois {{US-jazz-saxophonist-stub