Lonnie Johnson

[David Godwin]

Listening to Lonnie Johnson last night, it struck me that he is an ideal ping-pong "connection", as there seems so many links across the spectrum of music. And, listening tonight to his "Way Down In The Alley Blues", I had to look twice to see that the date of recording was 1928 - yet this sounds so fresh, inventive, and different from others, for example in his use of the bass strings. Lonnie left New Orleans for St Louis, when his family was all but wiped out by flu. He went on to play with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. One of his recording partners was the great white guitarist Eddie Lang. Bing Crosby's contract had a stipulation that he would only record with Lang as guitarist. It's interesting that Bob Dylan's "Chronicles" has several pages devoted to Lonnie Johnson, recounting how Johnson's advice radically changed Dylan's thinking on guitar playing. Interestingly, Dylan also states that Lonnie Johnson taught Robert Johnson - hence the connections flow on.

[RobHall]

Lonnie Johnson has a great solo on Louis Armstrong's "I'm Not Rough" (1927) that is just wonderful. I'm no musician, but it seems to me that, on this recording, Lonnie Johnson does an awful lot with just a little.