Johnson, Freddy
Johnson, Freddy
Johnson, Freddy, jazz pianist; b. N.Y., March 12, 1904; d. there, March 24, 1961. Johnson worked as Florence Mills’s accompanist c. 1922 before forming his own band in N.Y. (1924). During 1925, he worked with Elmer Snowden, then joined Billy Fowler in 1926. After briefly working with other bands, he joined Sam Wood-ing’s group from 1928-29, and traveled to Europe with them in June 1928. He remained in Paris in 1929, working for a long time at Bricktop’s famous club. In February 1934, he left France to work in Belgium and Holland. He played regularly at the Negro Palace in Amsterdam, including several long spells in a trio with Coleman Hawkins. In 1941, he opened his own club La Cubana in Amsterdam until arrested by the Nazis on Dec. 11, 1941. From January 1942 until February 1944, he was interned in Bavaria, then repatriated to the U.S. in March 1944. During the late 1940s and 1950s, he was mainly active as a piano teacher and vocal coach, but also played solo club dates in N. Y. He went to Europe in late 1959 with the “Tree and Easy” show. By then he was very ill with cancer, but after leaving the show was able to play for several weeks in Holland (1960). That autumn, he was hospitalized in Copenhagen, but then returned to N.Y., where he was immediately hospitalized until his death.
Discography
Live at B.B. Joe’s (1984); 1933-1939 (1933).
—John Chilton/Lewis Porter