Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra

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Buddy Johnson, (born Woodrow Wilson Johnson in 1915 in Darlington South Carolina, was considered the last of the great negro big band leaders, the king of the one nighters. A prolific composer of rhythm and blues who stayed on the road in his bus playing well over 125 one nighters a year throughout the 1940’s thriving and surviving until finally slowing down in the latter 50’s. He first appeared on Decca’s “race music” imprint in 1939, and he stayed with the label until 1953, then recording for Mercury until 1958, and his last album was on Roulette in 1958. When not on the road, or in the studio, he had a long standing gig at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City where his popular 17 member band held numerous box office records. Johnson’s musical style was primarily swinging R&B directed towards black audiences, characterized by exhuberant, driving and danceable sounds, often aided by his little sister Ella on vocals or male singer Arthur Prysock who left for a solo career in 1952. His touring group at it’s peak had 4 trumpets including Gil Askey, four trombones including Slide Hampton, five saxophones, string bass, guitar, drums and Johnson directing matters, often from the piano. As brassy big band R&B sounds fell out of favor, Johnson fought the times and kept a steady road retinue up, particularly in the south, but his sound was perhaps too sophisticated to ever crossover to the modern teeny bop rock n roll crowd. In 1950, at his commercial apex, he told an interviewer o

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