Biography
During the spring of 1945 legendary soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet assembled a group for a lengthy run at Boston’s Savoy Café and selected veteran trumpeter Bunk Johnson for the chair. Johnson’s unpredictable conduct soon exceeded what Bechet could tolerate, prompting an early replacement drawn from a tip by Boston Jazz Society members: the eighteen-year-old Johnny Windhurst. Entirely self-taught, Windhurst drew inspiration from Bix Beiderbecke as well as the later white trumpeters and cornetists Bobby Hackett, Wild Bill Davison, and Bunny Berigan. Although his professional career had barely begun when Bechet hired him, he rapidly earned notice as a gifted young player. In September 1946 he appeared at the Jazz at Town Hall concert alongside pianists Art Hodes and James P. Johnson. After a Chicago sojourn he relocated to California, where he worked with clarinetist Edmond Hall; other leaders at the time included Louis Armstrong and Nappy Lamare. Windhurst also fronted his own groups in Ohio and Boston and became a late associate of Eddie Condon, performing and recording with the guitarist in the early 1950s. He participated in sessions with trumpeter Ruby Braff (1952–1953), vocalist Barbara Lea (1955–1957), trombonist Jack Teagarden (1955), and singer Lee Wiley. In 1956 he issued Jazz at Columbus Avenue on the Transition label—the sole occasion he recorded as a leader—with bassist Buell Neidlinger among the sidemen. By the late 1950s he was again active in Ohio and at Condon’s New York club, after which his visibility sharply declined.