(Guitar, banjo, 1890–1966) Johnny St. Cyr played around New Orleans as a teenager with A.J. Piron and the Superior, Olympia and Tuxedo bands. He joined Kid Ory’s band in 1918 and later played in Fate Marable’s riverboat band. In 1923 he moved to Chicago, where he joined King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. He played on Armstrong’s ...
Johnny Hiland (b. 1975) is one of the top guitarists to emerge from the Nashville music scene in recent years. His playing combines country chicken pickin’ with elements of blues, metal and jazz. Often compared to Danny Gatton, Hiland displays an amazing vocabulary as he plays seemingly effortlessly onstage. His skill is also noteworthy because he is legally blind ...
Blues guitarist Johnny Winter (b. 1944) was born in Beaumont, Texas. Albino and cross-eyed from birth, Johnny showed a precocious talent for music, taking up the clarinet at the age of five and switching to guitar after a brief flirtation with the ukulele. Inspired by bluesmen like B.B. King, Muddy Waters and Bobby Bland, he ...
Indie guitar legend Johnny Marr (b. 1963) was born John Maher in Manchester, England to Irish Catholic parents. He grew up in a household where music was a constant fixture, and he recalled, ‘I always had guitars, for as long as I could remember.’ Guitar technique came easily to young Johnny, and he quickly mastered ...
Johnny Ramone (1948–2004) was born John Cummings in Long Island, New York. As a teenager, Johnny played in a band called The Tangerine Puppets alongside future Ramones drummer Tamás Erdélyi (better known as Tommy Ramone). Johnny worked as a plumber with his father before The Ramones became successful. He also attended military school and briefly attended college in Florida. ...
Few guitarists have gone through as many career changes as Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson (1935–96). Rock, blues, jazz, funk, disco – Watson excelled at all of them. He wasn’t just a guitarist either. He could, and did, play anything except drums and horns on his records. But it is as a guitarist that he left the ...
(Clarinet, 1892–1940) The premier New Orleans clarinetist of the 1920s, Dodds played in Kid Ory’s band from 1912–19 and then alongside Louis Armstrong and his own brother, Warren ‘Baby’ Dodds, in Fate Marable’s riverboat band. Dodds left New Orleans in January 1921 to join King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in Chicago, taking part in that influential ...
(Alto and soprano saxophones, 1907–70) Saxophonist Johnny Hodges was fortunate enough to forge an early relationship with Sidney Bechet; while playing at Club Bechet in New York he won the attention of Duke Ellington, who signed him in 1928. Hodges’ sweeping tone and scooping glissandos remained a vital part of Ellington’s orchestra for around 40 years, with only ...
(Drums, vibes, vocals, b. 1921) John Alexander Veliotes, born in Vallejo, California, started as a drummer and formed a big band in 1945. By 1947, Otis had switched to a seven- or eight-piece group. This was one of the earliest R&B combos to tour; the Johnny Otis Rhythm & Blues Caravan included vocalists Little ...
(Guitar, piano, vocals, 1935–96) The self-proclaimed ‘Gangster Of Love’, Watson learned piano from his father in Houston, Texas but became known for his terse, stinging guitar, which influenced Frank Zappa and has been sampled by rappers. Etta James patterned her early singing after Watson’s declarative vocals, best immortalized along with his wicked instrumental prowess ...
(Guitar, vocals, harmonica, b. 1944) Like his brother, keyboardist and saxophonist Edgar, Johnny Winter is a long-haired Caucasian albino from Texas who reshaped the face of the blues in the 1970s. A phenomenal guitar technician, particularly when using the slide, he rose to prominence in Texas bars and local studios. On his first album ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1937–97) The Houston guitarist played with bluesman Joe ‘Guitar’ Hughes before forming his own band in the late 1950s. Relocating to New York in 1974, Copeland debuted on Rounder Records with 1977’s Copeland Special. In 1985 he recorded a guitar summit meeting with Albert Collins and Robert Cray (Showdown!) and in 1986 recorded Bringin’ It ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1915–78) Oklahoma-born Johnny Bond originally formed a trio with Jimmy Wakely and gained national attention on Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch radio show. He made appearances in several singing-cowboy movies, first as a member of The Jimmy Wakely Trio, then leading his own group, The Red River Valley Boys. A prolific songwriter, he is ...
(Vocal/instrumental trio, 1954–57) Johnny (1934–64), brother Dorsey (1932–79) and guitarist Paul Burlison (1929–2003) were roughnecks from Memphis who played the local clubs during the early 1950s. They earned a recording contract with Coral after winning a televized talent show in New York, and cut some classic rockabilly before disbanding in 1957. Johnny and Dorsey later enjoyed successful solo careers. ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1937–95) Johnny Carroll, from Cleburne, Texas, recorded some wild rockabilly for Decca in Nashville and appeared in the cult movie Rock Baby Rock It in 1957. He later toured with Scotty Moore and Bill Black after they left Presley. He nearly died after a nightclub shooting in the 1960s, but he recovered and ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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sweep of incredible photographs.