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GEORGE V. JOHNSON, JR.
 George
V. Johnson, Jr. was born December 20, 1950, in Washington, DC.
His father’s love for the
music and record collection exposed him to a world of
entertainers. George loved to listen and emulate Eddie
Jefferson, Jon Hendricks, King Pleasure, Babs
Gonzales, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Carroll, Joe Williams,
Oscar Brown Jr., James Brown, Frankie Lyman, Sam
Cooke, Marvin Gaye and many more. He had the rare
opportunity to meet, study, travel and sing duets with
Eddie Jefferson, which opened a whole new world that
shaped his career for years to come - THE MAKING OF
A JAZZ SINGER.
Johnson attended Prince
George’s Community College and Howard University
School of Fine Arts. But George is a self-taught
musician who was first exposed to music by singing and
participating in church and school choirs. He listened
to gospel, R&B, Rock & Roll, Classical, Blues
and Jazz and emulated records played by his parents
while growing up in the household. At 20, his family
and friends encouraged him to consider a career in
music. He had a natural gift for writing lyrics,
poetry and producing beautiful sounds with his voice.
On a radio broadcast, George learned about a Jazz
Workshop at Bill Harris’ Nightclub “PIGFOOT” in
N.E. Washington DC, where he met pianist John Malachi
who helped to shape and guide his career for the next
15 years. George sang with many of the worlds’
finest musicians and recording artists. He met Jazz
lyricist, hoofer and innovator Eddie Jefferson, who
pioneered the art of Vocalese, writing lyrics to
improvised horn solos. Jefferson set lyrics to James
Moody’s classic solo “Moody’s Mood for Love”,
recorded by Clarence Beeks, a/k/a King Pleasure. Years
later, the style was perfected by Jon Hendricks of
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.
Considered
the “Heir Apparent” to Jefferson’s innovation,
George is one of the foremost practitioners of the
vocalese style on the Jazz scene, today. His debut
recording in 1981, was with Pharaoh Sanders on Rejoice
when he was credited with vocals and lyric on
Coltrane’s classic Moments Notice, later
reissued on Evidence Music. Johnson's
lyrics are about complex issues - personal
experiences, love, history, family, home, heaven and
most of all Jazz! Phrases turn, emotions connect,
melodies soar. It’s a fuel that burns full-throttle,
ignited by the heat of his soulful voice and the power
and passion of his performance. You sing along even
though you’ve never heard the tune before. George
writes from a perspective of distances, of interludes
between lovers and lives and the roads that lead from
small towns to big cities.
An accomplished
actor, Johnson appeared in the Soldier’s Play,
Mighty Gents, Hollywood Hussle, My
Mark My Name, Garvey, Trials &
Tribulations of Stagger Lee, Booker T.
Brown with Ricky Payton with whom he penned the
lyrics for Santa's Starship.
In 1979, at Howard
University, George performed in a 6-month European
tour of the Broadway musical Raisin and the Soul
of Soul, playing to sold out audiences at Stat
Theatres in St. Gallen, Geneva, Zurich, Bern, Luzerne,
Basel, Lugano, Switzerland, in Liechtenstein and
in Paris, France.
During the 1980s,
George performed with James Moody and Lou Donaldson,
two of the greatest saxophonist in the history of
Jazz. His close association with Moody led to many
local and national live radio and television
broadcasts and performances at Carnegie Hall Kool Jazz
Festivals, Town Hall Tribute to Charlie Parker
w/Strings arranged by Barry Harris, South Seaport Jazz
Festival, clubs in New York, including Sweet Basil,
Bottom Line, 7th Avenue South, Village Vanguard,
Village Gate, Grand reopening of Live @ the Apollo,
Grant’s Tomb, Jazz Mobile in NY, NJ, Philadelphia,
PA, Washington, DC, Indiana, Ohio, Mt. Vernon,
NY, Binghamton, NY, Springfield, MA, and Hartford CT.
George first met
Donaldson, in 1975, at the Pigfoot Jazz Club in
Washington DC. Lou dropped by to pianist John
Malachi and he sat in with the band on Now's The
Time. From then on, whenever George showed up at
Lou's concerts, Lou would bring George up to sing.
Johnson said playing with Lou Donaldson was like
singing with Charlie Parker. He was able to sing all
his Bird lyrics, while Donaldson played the
solo’s, note for note. "Being on stage with Lou
was one of the greatest feelings you could
imagine."
In 2003, George V
Johnson Jr. was commissioned by Don Sickler of Second
Floor Music to pen lyrics to the music of saxophonist,
Hank Mobley. Johnson completed over 40 of Mobley’s
compositions and is still counting. Some have complete
solos. Critics say this is one of the most important
and extensive projects to be presented to the public
from the jazz vocalese realm in years. Johnson has
kept the vocalese dream alive with his performances of
the music of Hank Mobley, a feat unmatched by any of
his peers in jazz music. His lyrics are well rounded,
beautifully written and a work of art. In the spirit
of Eddie Jefferson, Johnson is a modern griot, telling
stories the ancestors would be very proud of.
In 2009, Johnson
produced a one-man stage play, Monk, at the
Blair House in Washington, DC starring Rome Neal,
Academy Award winner.
MONK Held
Over Through July 2009
Sundays in July 5, 19, & 26
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