Lonnie Johnson

Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson (February 8, 1899 – June 16, 1970) was an American blues and jazz singer, guitarist, violinist and songwriter. He was a pioneer of jazz guitar and jazz violin and is recognized as the first to play an electrically amplified violin.
Johnson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in a family of musicians. He studied violin, piano and guitar as a child and learned to play various other instruments, including the mandolin, but he concentrated on the guitar throughout his professional career. "There was music all around us," he recalled, "and in my family you'd better play something, even if you just banged on a tin can."
In 1925, Johnson entered and won a blues contest at the Booker T. Washington Theatre in St. Louis, the prize being a recording contract with Okeh Records. Between 1925 and 1932 he made about 130 recordings for Okeh, many of which sold well (making him one of the most popular OKeh artists). He was called to New York to record with the leading blues singers of the day, including Victoria Spivey and the country blues singer Alger "Texas" Alexander.
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==Links to Peel==
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Peel didn't play any tracks by Lonnie Johnson before 1979, but the DJ was aware of Johnson and his music long before that. In the 1950s, Johnson was admired by blues listeners, made his first visit to the UK in 1952, and would have been written about in the jazz magazines Peel read in his youth. He was a far more proficient and versatile musician than most 1920s bluesmen and recorded prolifically, appearing on some of the classic Louis Armstrong Hot Five records which Peel rated highly, playing with Duke Ellington's orchestra and accompanying blues singers such as Bessie Smith. He also influenced the development of jazz guitar, especially in his duets with Eddie Lang, which were reissued on LPs and became favourites of British jazz collectors. More significantly for Peel, Lonnie Donegan, originally Tony Donegan, was an admirer of the guitarist and renamed himself after Johnson. 
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In the 1940s, Johnson changed style, from a jazz-blues singer-guitarist to a blues ballad singer (much to the disappointment of Lonnie Donegan when he saw his idol perform in 1952) and also influenced Elvis Presley, One of Presley's earliest recordings was a version of Johnson's million-selling blues ballad of 1948, "Tomorrow Night", written by Sam Coslow and Will Grosz. (Peel played the original version in 1980). The song was also recorded by LaVern Baker, (in 1957) by Jerry Lee Lewis and by Bob Dylan on his 1992 Good As I Been To You album. Dylan writes in his memoir Chronicles Vol. 1 of meeting and learning from Lonnie Johnson when both men were playing at the same club in the early 1960s. By then, Johnson had changed style yet again, tailoring his sets to appeal to the young white folk fans who now made up much of his audience. 
 
Peel didn't play any Lonnie Johnson tracks in the earlier years of his radio career, probably because blues-oriented listeners in the late 1960s were more interested in rediscovered rural bluesmen like Son House, Bukka White and Skip James, whose original 1920s recordings hadn't been big sellers. Later, however, JP, like other blues listeners paid more attention to the early blues artists who had been popular with black audiences - like Lonnie Johnson. The DJ played tracks by Johnson on his shows, especially in the 2000's, when he played some of his tunes via Blues Compilations albums. One of Johnson's duets with Eddie Lang, "A Handful of Riffs", was played at least three times, according to currently available playlists. 
==Shows Played==
;1979
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*18 April 1979 (& Eddie Lang): Handful Of Riffs (v/a album - Pioneers Of The Jazz Guitar) Yazoo 
;1980
*25 February 1980: Tomorrow Night
;thumb|220x220px1991
*17 August 1991: I Done Told You (album - Steppin' On The Blues) CBS 
*21 September 1991: Steppin’ On The Blues (CD – Steppin’ On The Blues) Columbia
*06 October 1991: Steppin' On The Blues (album - Steppin' On The Blues) Columbia 
;1993
*23 January 1993: 'Sam, You're Just A Rat (Compilation CD-Barrelhouse Blues 1927-1936)' (Yazoo)
*28 May 1993: ‘Sam You’re Just A Rat (v/a LP - Barrelhouse Blues 1927 to 1936)’ (Yazoo)
;2000
*16 May 2000: Handful Of Riffs (compilation album - A Handful Of Riffs - Blues Guitar Pioneers) Catfish
*May 2000 (FSK): Handful Of Riffs (compilation album - A Handful Of Riffs - Blues Guitar Pioneers) Catfish
;2002
*12 November 2002 (& Victoria Spivey): New Black Snake Blues (Part One) (LP - Gimme Dat Harp Boy! Roots Of The Captain) Big Snake
*21 November 2002 (Radio Eins) (& Victoria Spivey): New Black Snake Blues (Part One) (LP - Gimme Dat Harp Boy! Roots Of The Captain) Big Snake
;2004
*05 August 2004: Woke Up With The Blues In My Fingers (v/a compilation - Century of the Blues) Chrome Dreams
*14 September 2004: Woke Up With The Blues In My Fingers (v/a compilation LP - Century Of The Blues) Chrome Dreams
==External Links==
*Wikipedia
*Discogs
Category:Artists