Howard William "Swan" Johnson (January 1, 1908 – December 28, 1991) was an American swing alto

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

.Jan Evensmo

"JazzArcheology.com", 2015 In New York City Johnson was a member of bands led by Billy Cato,

James P. Johnson James Price Johnson (February 1, 1894 – November 17, 1955) was an American pianist and composer. A pioneer of stride piano, he was one of the most important pianists in the early era of recording, and like Jelly Roll Morton, one of the key ...

, and

Fess Williams Fess Williams ''(né'' Stanley R. Williams; April 10, 1894 – December 17, 1975) was an American jazz musician.''Biography Index, A Cumulative Index to Biographical Material in Books and Magazines, Volume 10: September 1973 — August 1976'', Ne ...

. In the 1930s he worked with

Benny Carter Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...

and

Teddy Hill Teddy Hill (December 7, 1909 in Birmingham, Alabama – May 19, 1978 in Cleveland, Ohio) was an American big band leader and the manager of Minton's Playhouse, a seminal jazz club in Harlem. He played a variety of instruments, including dru ...

, followed in the 1940s by

Claude Hopkins Claude Driskett Hopkins (August 24, 1903 – February 19, 1984) was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader. Biography Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his ...

and

Maxine Sullivan Maxine Sullivan (May 13, 1911 – April 7, 1987), born Marietta Williams in Homestead, Pennsylvania, United States, was an American jazz vocalist and performer. As a vocalist, Sullivan was active for half a century, from the mid-1930s to just be ...

. From 1946 to 1948 he was in

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

's band. He recorded with Gillespie and with

Red Norvo Red Norvo (born Kenneth Norville; March 31, 1908 – April 6, 1999) was an American musician, one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone as jazz instruments. His reco ...

and

Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and ...

. He also worked with the

Harlem Blues and Jazz Band The Harlem Blues and Jazz Band is a jazz ensemble active since the 1970s. The band was initiated by Al Vollmer in 1973, noting that a significant pool of jazz musicians who had played in the 1920s and 1930s lived in New York City and had retired ...

led by

Clyde Bernhardt Clyde Edric Barron Bernhardt (July 11, 1905 – May 20, 1986) was an American jazz trombonist. Bernhardt was born in Gold Hill, North Carolina, and raised there and in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He started playing trombone at age 17, and in th ...

and the

Savoy Sultans The Savoy Sultans was the name of two related 20th-century American jazz ensembles. Savoy Sultans (1937–1946) The original Savoy Sultans were formed by saxophonist Al Cooper, and played at the Savoy Ballroom from 1937 to 1946. This small swing ...

led by

Panama Francis David Albert "Panama" Francis (December 21, 1918 – November 13, 2001) was an American swing jazz drummer who played on numerous hit recordings in the 1950s. Early life Francis was born in Miami, Florida, on December 21, 1918. His father was ...

. Born in 1908, he continued to work through the 1980s. He should not be confused with tuba player Howard Johnson.

References

1908 births 1991 deaths 20th-century American saxophonists American jazz saxophonists Savoy Sultans members Harlem Blues and Jazz Band members {{US-jazz-saxophonist-stub