Buddy Johnson born 10 January 1915

 

Woodrow Wilson "Buddy" Johnson (January 10, 1915 – February 9, 1977) was an American jump blues pianist and bandleader active from the 1930s through the 1960s. His songs were often performed by his sister Ella Johnson, most notably "Since I Fell for You", which became a jazz standard. 

Buddy Johnson was born in Darlington, South Carolina. He took to music at an early age, becoming adept at the piano beginning at the age of five. As a teenager he was active in church and school groups arranging and producing musical presentations in the local community. By the time he graduated from Mayo High School in Darlington County, South Carolina, he had evolved into a talented musician. 

In 1938 he moved to New York City and the following year toured Europe with the Cotton Club Revue, being expelled from Nazi Germany. After his return, he soon put together a small band that played blues tunes and riff based jump and boogie dance numbers. In late 1939 he secured a recording contract with the oldest of the major labels, Decca Records. His very first recording was “Jammin' In Georgia” and “Stop Pretending” featuring Buddy on vocal accompanied by The Mack Sisters.

A short time after Buddy began recording for Decca, his teenage sister Ella joined him in New York and recorded with the band, on the tune “Please Mr. Johnson.” Besides Ella Johnson, singer Etta Jones also was a vocalist with the band in 1943 and 1944. Johnson showed off his talent as a composer with two of his original tunes “Troyon Swing” and “Southern Exposure.” By the year 1941, Buddy had put together a tight nine piece band. 

The band began to have successes for Decca during the war years, with Ella and then new addition Arthur Prysock on vocals. In late 1944 “They All Say I'm The Biggest Fool” with Prysock on vocal was a big seller for the band and it came on the heels of two other big hits “Fine Brown Frame” and “Walk em.” Ella Johnson hit pay-dirt in 1945 with a wonderful vocal turn on a Buddy Johnson original tune that would become an American standard, “Since I Fell For You.” 

                              

With a string of hit records, two superb vocalists, great original music charts, the Buddy Johnson band was one of the great attractions of the time. The band was a favourite at New York’s famed Savoy Ballroom in the 1940s and 1950s, prompting Johnson to be nicknamed “King of the Savoy.” At the time he formed his band, the other big bandleaders were exploring bebop and swing and creating new musical forms. Johnson instead turned for inspiration to the blues, prompting many reviewers to label his group a “jump blues band” or a “New York blues band.” The sound was widely popular and Johnson and his group were in demand throughout the country, especially the south. "Personally, I like classics," Buddy Johnson told Down Beat, "but our bread and butter is in the south. The music I play has a southern tinge to it. They understand it down there." 

In broadening his musical horizons, Buddy Johnson penned his complete “Piano Concerto” and in late 1948 had the opportunity to perform the work at Carnegie Hall in New York City. This was coupled with “Southland Suite”, another serious side of Johnson's musical talents with vocal work by Ella Johnson. During the next year, the influence of R & B began to take hold and many of the more jazz influenced musicians were embracing the more blues based style of this type of music. The Buddy Johnson band continued to hold forth even as the music began to evolve into what would be termed rock and roll in a few years. He and his band end the year with a sold out engagement at New York's Bop City. 

Johnson began the year 1950 with an extended engagement at Philadelphia's Earle Theater sharing the bill with the other Ella - Fitzgerald. The hits continued through the ‘50’s, Buddy changed over to Mercury Records after thirteen years and scores of hits at Decca. In March 1956, Mercury announces that they will move their R & B roster of talent to their new Wing subsidiary label. Included in the move is the Buddy Johnson band. By this time it became clear that the hit making days of the band were over. Rock 'n roll music had become the sound of young America, and teenage girls were the number one consumer of single records. Buddy switched to Roulette in 1959 but the more adult blues based sounds of the Buddy Johnson band were no match for the teen obsession with Elvis, vocal groups, and the teen idols now coming to the head of the industry. Even so - the band played on, continuing to grind out performances and were back on the dancehall circuit and finally recorded a single session with the Old Town label in 1964. 

Soon after the turn of the decade of the sixties, Buddy Johnson suffered failing health which curtailed his musical activities. His sister Ella also decided to retire from the music scene and help take care of her brother who had guided her career for twenty years. The big band of Buddy Johnson then passed into history and Buddy passed away in February of 1977 at the age of 62 from a brain tumour and sickle cell anaemia in New York. Ella Johnson lived quietly in New York and passed in 2004. 

(Edited mainly from James Nadal @ allaboutjazz & Encyclopedia.com)