Biography
A subtle player, Manzie Johnson earned consistent respect as a valued drummer among prebop musicians. Raised in New York, he took piano and violin instruction before concentrating on drums. Throughout the 1920s he appeared with Willie Gant's Ramblers in 1926, June Clark, Elmer Snowden, Joe Steele, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, and Horace Henderson in 1930. Johnson, who cut sides with Jelly Roll Morton in 1928, belonged to the Don Redman Orchestra from 1931 to 1937. Once he departed Redman he worked as a freelancer, performing with Willie Bryant, Lil Armstrong, Mezz Mezzrow, Redman again in 1940 and 1944, James P. Johnson, Ovie Alston at intervals from 1940 through 1944, and Fletcher Henderson in 1941. Following military service, Johnson became a part-time musician by the late 1940s, though he still recorded with Sidney Bechet in 1951 and maintained activity into the 1960s alongside Garvin Bushell and Happy Caldwell. Johnson, who also made recordings with Red Allen and Benny Morton during the 1930s, never led a session under his own name.