PETE JOHNSON

:''This article is about an American jazz pianist. For information on the American Football running back named Pete Johnson, see Pete Johnson (American football).
'Peter (Pete) Johnson' (25 March 1904 - 23 March 1967) was an American jazz pianist, best known as a leading boogie-woogie pianist.

Contents

Career

Notable songs

See also

External links

Career

Johnson was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He died in Meyer Hospital, Buffalo, New York.
He began his musical career in 1922 as a drummer in Kansas City. From 1926 to 1938 he worked as a pianist, often accompanying Big Joe Turner. In 1938 he and Turner appeared in the "From Spirituals to Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall. This concert started a boogie-woogie craze, and Turner and two other performers at the concert, Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons, worked together afterwards at Café Society for a long time; they also toured and recorded together.
The song, "Roll 'Em Pete", featuring Turner on vocals and Johnson on piano, was one of the first rock and roll records. Another self-referential title was their "Johnson and Turner Blues". In 1949, he also wrote and recorded "Rocket 88 Boogie", a two-sided instrumental not to be confused with the Ike Turner 1951 hit "Rocket 88".
In the late 1940s, Johnson recorded an early concept album ''Pete's House Warmin' '', in which he starts out playing alone, supposedly in new empty house, and is joined there by J. C. Higgenbotham, J.C. Heard, and other Kansas City players. Each has a solo single backed by Johnson, and then the whole group plays a jam session together. On this album Johnson shows his considerable command of stride piano and his ability to work with a group.
In 1950 he moved to Buffalo but, despite problems with his health, he continued to tour and record, notably with Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, and Jazz at the Philharmonic. A stroke in 1958 left him partly paralyzed. Johnson made one final appearance at John Hammond's January 1967 "Spirituals to Swing" concert, playing the right hand on a version of "Roll 'Em Pete" two months before his death.[1]

Notable songs

★ "1280 Stomp"

★ "627 Stomp"

★ "Basement Boogie"

★ "Buss Robinson Blues"

★ "Cherry Red"

★ "Goin' Away Blues"

★ "Holler Stomp"

★ "Just for You"

★ "Lone Star Blues"

★ "Pete's Blues"

★ "Pete's Lonsome Blues"

★ "Roll 'Em Pete"

★ "Vine Street Bustle"

See also

★ Big Joe Turner

★ List of boogie woogie musicians

★ List of jazz pianists

★ List of people from Kansas City

★ Kansas City Jazz

★ First rock and roll record

External links

★ Early part of Pete Johnson's biography

★ Mini Johnson biography

★ Biography at the All Music Guide website