Death Records Now

Peter “Pete” Johnson (1904 – 1967)

“Death Ray Boogie”

Pete Johnson was one of the three great boogie-woogie pianists (along with Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis) whose sudden prominence in the late ’30s helped make the style very popular. Originally a drummer, Johnson switched to piano in 1922. He was part of the Kansas City scene in the 1920s and ’30s, often accompanying singer Big Joe Turner. Producer John Hammond discovered him in 1936 and got him to play at the Famous Door in New York. After taking part in Hammond’s 1938 Spirituals to Swing Carnegie Hall concert in 1938, Johnson started recording regularly and appeared on an occasional basis with Ammons and Lewis as the Boogie Woogie Trio. He also backed Turner on some classic records. Johnson recorded often in the 1940s and spent much of 1947-1949 based in Los Angeles. He moved to Buffalo in 1950 and, other than an appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, he was in obscurity for much of the decade. A stroke later in 1958 left him partly paralyzed. Johnson made one final appearance at John Hammond’s January 1967 Spirituals to Swing concert, playing the right hand on a version of “Roll ‘Em Pete” two months before his death.

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Duration : 0:3:1

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Doctor Ross was a one man band and blues master!

Doctor Ross : “Thirty Two Twenty”
1958 Blues straight outta Flint, MI

BIO:
Doctor Ross
October 21, 1925 May 28, 1993 “Doctor Ross the harmonica boss”,

Biography by Jason Ankeny
Isaiah “Doc” Ross was a throwback to a bygone era; a true one-man band, he played harmonica, acoustic guitar, bass drum and high-hat simultaneously, creating a mighty racket harking back to the itinerant country-blues players wandering the Delta region during the earlier years of the 20th century. Born Charles Isaiah Ross on October 21, 1925 in Tunica, Mississippi, he took early inspiration from the music of Robert Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller and Sonny Boy Williamson I; primarily a harpist — hence his nickname “The Harmonica Boss” — he only added the other instruments in his arsenal in order to play a USO show while a member of the army during World War II. (The “Doc” moniker was acquired because he carried his harmonicas in a doctor’s bag.) Upon his release from the military, Ross settled in Memphis, where he became a popular club fixture as well as the host of his own radio show on station WDIA; during his club residency he was witness to a number of brutal murders, however, and swore off appearances in such venues during the later years of his life. During the early 1950s, Ross recorded his first sides — among them “Chicago Breakdown” — for labels including Sun and Chess; in 1954 he settled in Flint, Michigan, where he went to work as a janitor for General Motors, a position he held until retiring. In 1965 he cut his first full-length LP, Call the Doctor, and that same year mounted his first European tour; as the years passed Ross performed live with decreasing frequency, however, and was infamous for backing out of shows to catch his beloved Detroit Tigers on television. Upon winning a Grammy for his 1981 album Rare Blues, he experienced a career resurgence, and played festival dates to great acclaim prior to his death on May 28, 1993.

Duration : 0:2:49

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