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The Scene
Former D.C. bus driver sings jazz, vocalese
Johnson worked his way up with song, now assists AU vocalists
By Ben Lozovsky on 2/2/06
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Imagine listening to a seasoned jazz musician rip into a bebop solo so sizzling and smooth it makes your senses tingle. Close your eyes and play along. Try and picture the sweat bouncing off the performer like the notes that leap through the air. See if you can hear the mesmerizing melodies go up and down, bringing you through joy and sadness, taking your emotions on a sensory experience unlike any other. Now picture that musician and his beloved instrument: His voice.
That's the art of vocalese, and that's what native D.C. son George V Johnson Jr. has been doing for over 40 years.
Working as a performer, a D.C. Metrobus driver and a New Jersey train conductor at different times throughout his life, Johnson's latest work has taken the form of pedagogy. He has become a teacher and mentor to both aspiring and established vocalists from around the area, and most recently he has lent his years of experience and talent to AU, leading the AU jazz vocal ensemble.
Despite his lack of formal musical training, Johnson was exposed to music early in his life, straight from some of the greatest jazz pioneers in the District's history. Even before he was 10 years old, Johnson was already hanging out at the jam sessions held by the resident manager of his apartment building, also a pianist. There he would come to watch and - if he was lucky - sing for pocket change from local legends like Shirley Horn and Buck Hill.
When he was 22, Johnson showed up for a workshop at the famous Pigfoot Club, now long gone from the D.C. landscape, only to win over the respect and affection of pianist John Malachi, an international star who was a member of the original Billy Eckstine Be Bop Orchestra. He played alongside luminaries like Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and Sarah Vaughan. It was through his relationship with Malachi that Johnson was able to meet and befriend his childhood idol, singer Eddie Jefferson. Considered by many as the father of vocalese, the practice of setting recorded instrumental solos to lyrics, Jefferson already knew of Johnson when they first met in Fort Dupont Park in Southeast D.C.
"I guess my reputation preceded me up to New York, because [traveling musicians stopping through the Pigfoot] would tell Eddie, 'There's a young cat singing your stuff,'" Johnson said.