Bunk Johnson
Due to the difference of opinion between his followers (who claimed he was a brilliant stylist) and his detractors (who felt that his playing was worthless), Bunk Johnson was a controversial figure in the mid-'40s, when he made a most unlikely comeback. The truth is somewhere in between.
Bunk Johnson, who tended to exaggerate, claimed that he was born in 1879 and that he played with Buddy Bolden in New Orleans, but it was discovered that he was actually a decade younger. He did have a pretty tone and, although not an influence on Louis Armstrong (as he often stated), he was a major player in New Orleans starting around 1910 when he joined the Eagle Band. Johnson was active in the South until the early '30s, but did not record during that era. Discovered in the latter part of the decade by Bill Russell and Fred Ramsey, he was profiled in the 1939 book Jazzmen. A collection was taken up to get Johnson new teeth and a horn. In 1942, he privately recorded in New Orleans, and the next year he was in San Francisco playing with the wartime edition of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. An alcoholic, Johnson's playing tended to be erratic, and when Sidney Bechet recruited him for a band in 1945, he essentially drank himself out of the group. In 1946, Bunk Johnson led a group that included the nucleus of the ensemble George Lewis would make famous a few years later, but Johnson disliked the playing of the primitive New Orleans musicians. He was more comfortable the following year heading a unit filled with skilled swing players, and his final album (Columbia's The Last Testament of a Great Jazzman) was one of his best recordings. In 1948, the trumpeter (who was only 59 but seemed much older) returned to Louisiana and retired. Many of Bunk Johnson's better recordings have been reissued on CD by Good Time Jazz and American Music.
© Scott Yanow /TiVo
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Bunk Johnson - King of the Blues
Jazz - Released by American Music on 10 Dec 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bunk's Blues
Jazz - Released by Upbeat Recordings on 23 Nov 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bunk Johnson Volume 1 - New York (1945-1946)
Jazz - Released by Document Records on 30 Aug 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bunk's Brass Band and 1945 Sessions
Jazz - Released by American Music on 10 Dec 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bunk And Lu
Bunk Johnson, Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band
Jazz - Released by Good Time Jazz on 1 Jan 1957
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Jazz Pioneer (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Master Tape Records on 22 May 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bunk Johnson Volume 2 - New Orleans (1942-1945)
Jazz - Released by Document Records on 30 Aug 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Jazz Nocturne 2 - Bunk & Bechet in Boston
Jazz - Released by Jazz Crusade on 10 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jazz Nocturne 1 - Bunk, Bocage & Bechet in Boston
Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet, Peter Bocage
Jazz - Released by Jazz Crusade on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Low Down Blues
Ragtime - Released by Universal Digital Enterprises on 26 Nov 1944
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bunk Johnson - 1944/45
Jazz - Released by American Music on 10 Dec 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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New Orleans Jazz Men, Vol. 2
Jazz - Released by Ap music on 15 Aug 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bunk Johnson And His Superior Jazz Band
Jazz - Released by Good Time Jazz on 1 Jan 1957
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
1944 Second Masters
Jazz - Released by American Music on 11 Dec 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Minneapolis Concert 1947 (Live Recording)
Jazz - Released by American Music on 23 Oct 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Bunk Johnson Plays Popular Songs
Jazz - Released by American Music on 9 Dec 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rare and Unissued Masters 1943-46, Vol. 2
Jazz - Released by American Music on 25 Sep 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo