Matt Johnson (born 3 February 1969) is a British keyboardist who plays for the

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

and

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 ...

band

Jamiroquai Jamiroquai () are an English funk and acid jazz band from London. Formed in 1992, they are fronted by vocalist Jay Kay, and were prominent in the London-based funk and acid jazz movement of the 1990s. They built on their acid jazz sound in the ...

Biography

Johnson was aged one and a half when he started playing the piano at his family home. "My dad was a musician, so there was always music playing in the house; but I remember being taught by a scary old piano teacher, who must have been over 90 years old". His influences range from

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

and

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...

through to

Squarepusher Tom Jenkinson (born 17 January 1975), known professionally as Squarepusher, is an English electronic musician, record producer, bassist, multi-instrumentalist and DJ. His music spans several genres including drum and bass, IDM, acid house, ...

. Before playing in Jamiroquai, Johnson was a writer and performer for bands Sunray—with whom

Kym Mazelle Kym Mazelle (born Kymberly Grigsby; August 10, 1960) is an American singer. She is regarded as a pioneer of house music in the United Kingdom and Europe. Her music combines R&B, soul, funk, house music, dance, and pop. She is credited as " The ...

recorded a cover of "Perhaps"—and Nu Hope. He has also written and produced songs for artists such as Alexia, who had a minor hit with "Ring". His route into Jamiroquai was via an audition in 2002. He was recommended by

Simon Katz Simon Katz (born 16 May 1971) is an English songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work with the band Jamiroquai from 1995 to 2000. Katz was a recipient of the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocal ...

, a previous Jamiroquai guitarist, and Derrick gave him the call. The audition was a success, and Matt became a songwriter and member of Jamiroquai. He joined Jamiroquai on 2 May 2002, replacing the founding member

Toby Smith Toby Grafftey-Smith (29 October 1970 – 11 April 2017), known professionally as Toby Smith, was an English musician, most famous for being the keyboardist and co-songwriter for Jamiroquai from 1992 until his departure in 2002. Background and p ...

as keyboardist. Johnson has also had a stint as the chief songwriting partner and producer—along with a Jamiroquai bandmate, guitarist Rob Harris—for singer-songwriter

Julian Perretta Julian Remo Perretta''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1984–2004.'' Gives name at birth as "Julian Remo Perretta". (born 13 January 1992) is an English singer-songwriter and producer. Perretta first gained attention in 2010 ...

, helping him create his debut album, ''Stitch Me Up'', which was released in 2010. Johnson produced and co-wrote songs for the group's 2017 album, ''

Automaton An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

'', with bandmate

Jay Kay Jay Kay (born Jason Luís Cheetham; 30 December 1969) is an English singer and songwriter. He is best known as the co-founder and lead vocalist of the acid jazz and funk band Jamiroquai, which was formed in 1992. Early life Jay Kay was bo ...

. He also produced

Jon Regen Jon is a shortened form of the common given name Jonathan, derived from "YHWH has given", and an alternate spelling of John, derived from "YHWH has pardoned".Sound on Sound ''Sound on Sound'' is an independently owned monthly music technology magazine published by SOS Publications Group, based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The magazine includes product tests of electronic musical performance and recording devices, a ...

magazine website described Johnson as "one of the most talented and prolific keyboard players of the last 20 years" in April 2022.

Personal life

Johnson married Tanya Burke on 18 July 2006. The pair maintain a popular

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

and

vlog A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...

, and Tanya and his daughter Jaz lend their vocals on a Japanese bonus track entitled "Clear Blue" from ''With the Music''.

References

Living people Jamiroquai members 1969 births Musicians from London {{jazz-keyboardist-stub