I was saddened to hear of the passing of the great Howard Johnson, probably jazz's greatest exponent of the tuba and a musician who totally reimagined its potential. When I was getting in to jazz in the 1980s, his name was almost ubiquitous in a host of big bands such as Carla Bley, George Gruntz and Gil Evans. I can remember a story about Johnson being given trumpet parts to play with Evans' orchestra as the arranger was looking for a particular sound where the tuba was playing outside of it's normal range. There are also small group records with Abdullah Ibrahim but for me I always associated Johnson with Evans and Gruntz as they were both particularly adept at writing for brass instruments. Evans was largely responsible to the tuba's re-habitation in jazz whilst working for Claude Thornhill whereas Gruntz's composing for horns is worthy of singling out similarly to Benny Carter's writing for reeds. The principle solo feature for Johnson used to be Jimi Hendrix' "Voodoo Chile" - something almost incongruous but symptomatic of the manner in which Evans' work changed from the late 60s onwards. Quite interesting to read Bob Stewart's comments regarding Johnson's technical and the shear physical effort necessary for the latter to take his instrument into the previously uncharted waters.
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I recall John Surman, in his R3 series on the baritone sax, had a story of his first meeting with Howard Johnson. Johnson was in the US Navy at the time, and turned up at a jam session with tuba under one arm and bari under the other. Unsual doubling to say the least, and pain to tour with I'm sure.
RIP.all words are trains for moving past what really has no name -
Howard Johnson obituary...
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....Howard Johnson I believe very prominent as tuba player in a tuba ensemble with Taj Mahal in 70's....the Real thing....Wow that was a driven album....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EYNNEvKe30bong chingComment
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