David Earle Johnson

For other people named David Johnson, see David Johnson (disambiguation).

David Earle Johnson was a percussionist, a composer and a music producer.

Career

Percussionist David Earle Johnson performed on albums by a number of jazz artists in the seventies before releasing a few of his own albums in the late seventies and early eighties. He appeared on numerous albums: Billy Cobham's Total Eclipse and Clive Stevens' Voyage to Uranus (1974); Jan Hammer's First Seven Days (1975); Lenny White's Big City and Miroslav Vitouš' Majesty Music (1977); Jaroslav Jakubovic's Checkin' In, Mark Moogy Klingman's Moogy II, the Players Association's Born to Dance, and Josh White Jr.'s self-titled album (1978); and others.

Johnson's solo debut came in 1978 with Time Is Free, recorded for Vanguard. His relationship with that label proved short-lived, however, and he began recording albums for other labels in subsequent years before his recording career simmered following his 1983 album, The Midweek Blues.

Jan Hammer produced and performed on most of these releases along with John Abercrombie, Jeremy Steig, Col.Bruce Hampton, Allen Sloan, Dan Wall, Ben 'Pops' Thornton, Billy McPherson and Gary Campbell.

David was against the use of "sampled sounds", as Hammer used samples of David's rare Nigerian Log Drums on the Miami Vice soundtrack without David's permission. This resulted in a lawsuit which David ultimately lost.

David Earle Johnson died from cancer in 1998.

Discography

Discography for other artists' albums

Personal life

He was married with artist-painter Evelyne Morisot with whom he had four children. He died in 1998.

External links

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