Sunday, July 16, 2006

Howard Johnson, Putting a Deep Bottom on the Blues


Howard Johnson DSC01343, originally uploaded by NoVARon.

Howard Johnson, seen on the 2006 Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise where he led Gravity, his all tuba brass section, as part of Taj Mahal's Band on the trip, which gave a fresh persoective for some of Taj's songs. The terrific jazz guitarist Calvin Keys was also part of the band. Its been a couple decades since Gravity performed with Mahal, although Taj as returned the favor, and in fact the eclectic bluesman can be heard on a live European Gravity album. Johnson, of course, does more than play tuba and plays baritone sax on the most recent Half Note CD by David 'Fathead' Newman.

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