Howard Johnson

A versatile multi-instrumentalist who excelled on baritone saxophone and pioneered new possibilities for the tuba, Howard Johnson forged a wide-ranging path across avant-garde jazz, blues, and rock. After reaching New York in the 1960s he collaborated with Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner, Gil Evans, Charlie Haden, and the Creative Music Studio while establishing a durable partnership with Taj Mahal; his engagements also encompassed Paul Simon, Chaka Khan, the Band, and a long stint in the Saturday Night Live Band. Leading the all-tuba ensemble Gravity, he issued the albums Gravity!!! in 1995, Right Now in 1998, and Testimony in 2017.

Johnson entered the world in 1941 in Montgomery, Alabama, and spent his formative years in Massillon, Ohio, where he became self-taught on both baritone saxophone and tuba during adolescence. Following high school he enlisted in the Navy, resided briefly in Boston and Chicago, and relocated permanently to New York in 1963, promptly securing engagements alongside Charles Mingus, Hank Crawford, Archie Shepp, and others; he contributed to McCoy Tyner’s 1967 recording Tender Moments and launched a two-decade intermittent alliance with Gil Evans that included further dates with Pharoah Sanders, Andrew Hill, and Freddie Hubbard.

By 1970 he appeared on Charlie Haden’s debut Liberation Music Orchestra album and resumed work with Mingus, simultaneously venturing outside jazz by assembling the four-tuba unit Substructure, which toured and recorded regularly with Taj Mahal and featured on the 1971 release The Real Thing. Johnson performed with the Band on both Rock of Ages and The Last Waltz, supported Paul Simon, James Taylor, and Carly Simon, and served five years in the Saturday Night Live house band while participating in sessions with Jaco Pastorius, Carla Bley, Gato Barbieri, George Benson, and Dexter Gordon.

Throughout the 1980s he maintained an expansive schedule that included projects with Chaka Khan, Hank Crawford, Yoko Ono, and Bob Moses, and he directed an ensemble at the 1981 Woodstock Jazz Festival commemorating the Creative Music Studio’s tenth anniversary. Although ceaselessly active, Johnson waited until 1994 to issue his first recording under his own name, Arrival: A Pharoah Sanders Tribute; the following year Gravity!!! spotlighted his longstanding tuba sextet, and after additional work with George Gruntz, John Scofield, T.S. Monk, and Barbara Dennerlein he delivered his third album, 1998’s Right Now, which reunited Gravity with guest Taj Mahal.

Into the 2000s Johnson remained busy, recording and performing with Mario Pavone, David “Fathead” Newman, Marty Ehrlich, Tom Harrell, Catherine Russell, and the Band’s Levon Helm. In 2017 he released Testimony, his fourth album and third featuring Gravity. Johnson passed away at his Harlem, New York, residence on January 11, 2021, at the age of 79.