Blind Willie Dunn and Lonnie Johnson - Deep Minor Rhythm Stomp (1929)

Eddie Lang (October 25, 1902 March 26, 1933) was an American jazz guitarist, considered by many [citation needed] to be the Father of the Jazz Guitar, the finest jazz guitarist of his era, and to be the greatest rhythm player of all time, playing a Gibson L-4 and L-5 guitar, providing great influence for many guitarists, including Django Reinhardt.

Lang was born Salvatore Massaro, the son of an Italian-American instrument maker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At first, he took violin lessons for 11 years. In school he became friends with Joe Venuti, with whom he would work for much of his career. He was playing professionally by about 1918, playing violin, banjo, and guitar. He worked with various bands in the USA's north-east, worked in London (late 1924 to early 1925), then settled in New York City.

He played with the bands of Venuti, Adrian Rollini, Roger Wolfe Kahn and Jean Goldkette in addition to doing a large amount of freelance radio and recording work.

In 1929 he joined Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, and can be seen and heard in the movie The King of Jazz.

When Bing Crosby left Whiteman, Lang went with Bing as his accompanist and can be seen with him in the 1932 movie Big Broadcast. Lang also played under the pseudonym Blind Willie Dunn on a number of blues records with Lonnie Johnson.

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Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson (Feb.8,1899 - June 16,1970)

was an American blues and jazz singer/guitarist and songwriter who pioneered the role of jazz guitar and is recognized as the first to play single-string guitar solos.

In 1925, Johnson entered and won a blues contest at the Booker T. Washington Theatre in St. Louis, the prize being a recording contract with Okeh Records. To his regret, he was then tagged as a blues artist, and later found it difficult to be regarded as anything else. He later said, "I guess I would have done anything to get recorded - it just happened to be a blues contest, so I sang the blues." Between 1925 and 1932 he made about 130 recordings for the Okeh label. He was called to New York to record with the leading blues singers of the day including Victoria Spivey and country blues singer Alger "Texas" Alexander. He also toured with Bessie Smith's T.O.B.A. show.

In 1927, Johnson recorded in Chicago as a guest artist with Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, paired with banjoist Johnny St. Cyr. In 1928 he recorded with Duke Ellington, as well as with a group, The Chocolate Dandies. He pioneered the guitar solo on the 1927 track "6/88 Glide" and many of his early recordings showed him playing 12-string guitar solos in a style that influenced such future jazz guitarists as Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, and gave the instrument new meaning as a jazz voice. He excelled in purely instrumental pieces, some of which he recorded with the white jazz guitarist Eddie Lang, whom he teamed up with in 1929. These recordings were among the first in history to feature black and white musicians performing together, but Lang was credited as Blind Willie Dunn to disguise the fact.

After touring with Bessie Smith in 1929, Johnson moved to Chicago, and recorded for Okeh with stride pianist James P. Johnson. However, with the temporary demise of the recording industry in the Great Depression, Johnson was compelled to make a living outside music, working at one point in a steel mill in Peoria, Illinois. In 1932 he moved again to Cleveland, Ohio, where he lived for the rest of the decade. There, he played intermittently with the band of vocalist and singer Putney Dandridge, and performed on radio programs.


Blind Willie Dunn and Lonnie Johnson - Deep Minor Rhythm Stomp (1929)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Blind
• Willie
• Dunn
• Lonnie
• Johnson
• Eddie
• Lang
• 1929
• 20's
• 30's

[vermontpoet]

I've been listening to this work for ages, and it is still fresh, and amazing. This is the real deal.

[vincenz55]

comment on lonnie and lang not on useless django who gives a crap about django when im listening to this

[vincenz55]

theres lang here also not only lonnie

[vincenz55]

@arodjazz goes to show you how limited intellectually django was not too mention his arrogance and how self centred he was.

[johngoo343]

man was lonnie smooth or what

[xistenceq]

Great channel! Thanks for flying the flag. Been a long time Laing Johnson fan. I tried my own version of Blue Room Blues at a London club- Doc Stenson and Simon Prager on SXSW14

[arodjazz]

@noutrane this is a myth. Django was quoted early in his career referring to Lang as a "limited" guitarist, clearly not high praise for a potential influence.

[Hoopermazing]

@sdgakatbk Idiot.

[hiu1102]

omg rare rare rare



[ishouldntbeyoutubing]

@busessuck1 Try Alexander's Frisco Train Blues.