Lonnie Johnson was born in New Orleans on February 28, 1889. In addition to being a pioneering blues guitarist, Lonnie was also one of the greatest jazz guitarists the world has ever heard. Fortunately, due to the reissue of many of his recordings from the 1920s and 1930s, specifically his duets with Eddie Lang, guitar and jazz enthusiasts can experience Johnson’s genius. His impact on guitarists from the 1920s to the present, through his special style of jazz blues guitar solo, is indisputable. Johnson was also a true vocalist in the blues tradition and made many outstanding vocal recordings throughout his long professional career.
As a young man, Lonnie Johnson, one of 13 children, studied guitar and violin. He began his musical career around 1902 playing in New Orleans cafes and theaters with his brother James, who was a pianist. He continued his profession by playing with river bands. In 1917 he traveled to Europe and worked for a time in London theater orchestras. He returned to New Orleans in 1921 only to discover that a flu epidemic (1918-1919) had wiped out nearly his entire family.
In 1922, Lonnie moved to St. Louis, where he worked with Charlie Creath, Fate Marable, and Nat Robinson. When he won a blues contest held in St. Louis, he rose to national prominence in 1925. Part of the contest prize was a recording contract with the “OKeh” record label. Over the next two years, Johnson made many records in both New York City and Chicago. The highlights of his at that point in his career were probably the ones he did in a guitar duo with Eddie Lang, who at the time was going by the stage name Blind Willie Dunn.
Lonnie Johnson also performed with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, and many other popular jazz and blues artists of the day. In 1932, Johnson moved to Cleveland and played with the Putney Dandridge Orchestra. He periodically appeared on regional radio shows. For a time he also worked in a tire factory and later in a steel mill. In 1937 he moved to Chicago. From 1937 to 1940 he frequently worked with numerous jazz artists, including Jimmy Noone and Johnny Dodds. His outstanding talent for the guitar was not fully exposed when he played and recorded with these musicians. From the mid-1940s, Johnson began playing an electric guitar, but his approach to the guitar was not as convincing on the amplified instrument.
Tragically, Lonnie’s career as a guitarist declined from this point, although he continued to play routinely until 1952. In 1958 he was forced to support himself for a time by working as a chef in a Philadelphia hotel. Fortunately, Johnson was rediscovered in 1960 by some jazz and blues enthusiasts and was once again able to make a living singing and playing guitar. In early 1963 he appeared with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in New York and in the fall of that year he toured Europe and Great Britain as part of a blues package called “The American Folk Blues Festival”.
In the mid-1960s, Lonnie Johnson finally decided to settle in Toronto, Canada, where he became popular with local blues and jazz guitar fans. When he was hit by a car, his career ended abruptly in 1969. It was in Toronto that he died in 1970 of cardiac arrest, which was the end result of his serious mishap the year before. Lonnie was 71 years old when he died.