Osie Johnson

Osie Johnson ranked among New York’s busiest drummers throughout the 1950s and the opening years of the 1960s, logging countless studio dates and maintaining a near-constant presence on recordings. His professional career began in 1941; he spent 1942–1943 with Sabby Lewis’s orchestra in Boston and then served in a Navy band from 1944 to 1945. Five years of freelance work in Chicago preceded a 1951–1953 tenure with Earl Hines. Engagements alongside Dorothy Donegan and Illinois Jacquet came next, after which Johnson established himself as a first-call session player, appearing on dates with such mainstream figures as Coleman Hawkins, Dinah Washington, Wes Montgomery, and Sonny Stitt. Beyond his characteristically tasteful and supportive drumming, he occasionally composed, arranged, and sang, directing recording sessions for Jazztone in 1955 and for RCA the following year.