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THERE’S been a lot of bad news for culture and society lately, so I want to offer one of my occasional bits of inspiration. Jazz and blues player Lonnie Johnson is one of the greatest-ever American musicians, and one of the most underrated guitarists in history. His playing predates Robert Johnson and many of the Delta blues masters, and he developed a more polished urban style that to T-Bone Walker and through him to Chuck Berry and B.B. King. He’s also got a wonderfully keening and understated voice.
Johnson’s duos with 20s jazz guitarist Eddie Lang may be the best two-guitar sessions in history.
Here is a video of “Another Night to Cry”; I think this footage comes from the American Folk Blues Festival that toured Europe in the ’60s. He’s introduced by the great blues harpist Sonny Boy Williams
on.
I would love to know who is accompanying Lonnie Johnson on this performance, I recognize Willie Dixon on bass which make me think perhaps the drummer and piano player are also Chess players, but I don’t recognize them. I believe this is from 1963, but I’m not sure. I’m much more familiar with lonnie’s acoustic playing (both 6 & 12 string) the tone he elicits from an early Key electric is beautiful….. not at all like what he sounds like on the Eddie Lang duets…. it’s a revelation, thanks for posting this link.
Ken Hatfield
Indeed his style had changed a lot since his 20s duets with Lang…
That is indeed Willie Dixon on bass and I think Otis Spann on piano.
Sam Lay is the drummer, I think. Yes, that’s Otis Spann and Willie Dixon. Lonnie Johnson, by the way, resented being labeled as a blues musician, feeling he’d demonstrated much more musical breadth and sophistication than other guitarists “rediscovered” during the early ’60s blues revival.