Budd Johnson


Albert J. "Budd" Johnson III was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who worked extensively with, among others, Ben Webster, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Count Basie, Billie Holiday and, especially, Earl Hines.

Life and career

Johnson initially played drums and piano before switching to tenor saxophone. In the 1920s he performed in Texas and parts of the Midwest, working with Jesse Stone among others. Johnson had his recording debut while working with Louis Armstrong's band in 1932-33 but he is more known for his work, over many years, with Earl Hines. It is contended that he and Billy Eckstine, Hines' long-term collaborator, led Hines to hire "modernists" in the birth of bebop, which came largely out of the Hines band. Johnson was also an early figure in the bebop era, doing sessions with Coleman Hawkins in 1944. In the 1950s he led his own group and did session work for Atlantic Records - he is the featured tenor saxophone soloist on Ruth Brown's hit "Teardrops from My Eyes". In the mid-1960s he began working and recording again with Hines. His association with Hines is his longest lasting and most significant. In 1975 he began working with the New York Jazz Repertory Orchestra. He was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993. His grandson, Albert Johnson, was a member of the hip-hop duo Mobb Deep.

Discography

As leader/coleader

With Cannonball Adderley
WIth Count Basie
With Ruth Brown
  • Miss Rhythm
With Benny Carter
With Roy Eldridge
With Duke Ellington and Count Basie
With Gil Evans
With Dizzy Gillespie
With Coleman Hawkins
  • Rainbow Mist compilation of Apollo recordings
With Earl Hines
With Claude Hopkins
With Etta Jones
  • Lonely and Blue
With Quincy Jones
  • The Birth of a Band!
  • The Great Wide World of Quincy Jones
  • I Dig Dancers
  • Quincy Plays for Pussycats
With Jimmy McGriff
With Carmen McRae
  • Something to Swing About
With Bud Powell
  • '
With Carrie Smith
With Jimmy Smith
  • Monster
With Sonny Stitt
  • Broadway Soul
With Clark Terry
  • Color Changes
  • Clark Terry Plays the Jazz Version of All American
With Ben Webster
  • Ben Webster and Associates
With Randy Weston'
With Jimmy Witherspoon