CURATION
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from this page:
by Augmented Matrix
Network Node
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Name:
Alphonso Johnson
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City/Place:
Los Angeles, California
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Country:
United States
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Hometown:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Life
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Bio:
Alphonso Johnson is an iconic musician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania whose contributions with the electric bass set the landscape of music to come. As Weather Report’s bassist, Johnson’s warm tone and fluent chops contributed to the band’s initial breakout from avant-garde into funk fusion. His playing was featured on the songs “Mysterious Traveler”, “Scarlet Woman”, and “Cucumber Slumber” which he co-wrote. Alphonso played with the group Santana and also toured with saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist James Beard, drummer Rodney Holmes, and guitarist David Gilmore playing S.R.O. shows that stretched across Europe and Japan. Johnson has taught all over the world and in 2004 was appointed Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Southern California and Part-Time Lecturer at The California Institute of The Arts.
I first began composing after watching the girls in my neighborhood playing jumprope. From the rhythms created by the rope hitting the ground, and the sound of the feet pounding the pavement to avoid getting tangled up in the rope as it swung below and above their heads. I felt an absolute sense of melody connection with the visual imagery. This childhood experience would lay the foundation for what would become a very complex journey in my musical future.
In addition to my urban music experiences, I also have a substantial background of performance and music-related employment. As a student at The Edwin H. Vare Junior High School in South Philadelphia, I found myself under the guidance of Dr. George Allen who made sure that everyone would get the necessary academic basic understanding of harmony and theory. But even more important, he would instill in every member of the school orchestra the importance of understanding why we were playing music and how each composition was created by the composer for a specific reason to move the listeners.
After graduating from junior high school I attended The Edward W. Bok Technical High School which did not have a music program. Since all of my older brothers were alumni of the school, I decided to follow in their footsteps and study woodworking and cabinetmaking as a trade. My parents wanted me to have a skill that would allow me to get a job and have a way to support myself financially, but I still felt the pull of music. I would attend school during the daytime and after finishing my homework, I would get permission from my parents to play at some neighborhood house parties. Sometime I would play bass along with recordings while my friends danced, and on the rare occasion a drummer and guitarist would show up and we would make up songs on the spot. I didn’t realize this at the time but this experience would be one reason why I’m still alive today. Playing music kept me involved in creating something positive that made so many people happy, and the alternative facing me and many of my friends which were the street gangs that were eager to recruit new members.
After graduating from high school, I landed a job with singer Ronnie Dyson and at that time I was earning almost as much every week as my parents. Having financial freedom and independence at such a young age allowed me to take certain chances not normally afforded to a young African-American. I was able to take private music lesson with Mr. John Lamb who was the bassist with The Duke Ellington Orchestra. It was during my time studying with Mr. Lamb that I began to understand the importance of having a good teacher, and how to spark the curiosity of a student so they are encouraged to learn how to explore and discover the importance of music as an art form.
During my time in Philadelphia I had the privilege of playing music with such local legends as Eddie Green (keyboards), Sherman Ferguson (drums), Morris Bailey (saxophone) and vocalist Billy Paul (recorded “Me and Mrs. Jones”). These musicians encouraged me to always take the music as far as humanly possible no matter what the odds were. After traveling and performing music from 1968 - 2005, and having raised three children while living in Los Angeles, I decided that it was time for me to return to my academic studies and get my degree in music education. I was able to stay in town and integrate myself into the studio recording scene so I could afford my college education. In 2014 I graduated from The California State University, Northridge with my Bachelors of Arts Degree in Music Education.
All of these experiences have given me the life skills of survival, determination, time management, and how to appreciate living in the moment. It is my goal to incorporate these skills into my music and pass this onto my students.
Contact Information
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Address:
Embamba Music Productions
Post /Office Box 261093
Encino, California 91426
Clips (more may be added)
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
Wolfram Mathematics
Bahia was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place on earth throughout all of human history...refuge for Sephardim fleeing the Inquisition...Indigenous both apart and subsumed into a sociocultural matrix which is all of these: a small-world matrix (see Wolfram). Human society, the billions of us, is small-world. Neural structures for human memory are small-world. This technological matrix positioning creators around the world within reach of each other and the entire planet is able to do so because it is also small-world...
In small worlds great things are possible.
Alicia Svigals
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"I'm truly thankful ... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)"
—Nduduzo Makhathini (JOHANNESBURG): piano, Blue Note recording artist
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
Dear friends & colleagues,
Having arrived in Salvador 13 years earlier, I opened a record shop in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for Bahian musicians, many of them magisterial but unknown.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Bahians and other Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix (people who have passed are not removed), then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Recent access to this matrix and Bahia are from these places (a single marker can denote multiple accesses).
Across the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
For a complete list of everybody inside, tap TOTAL below:
TOTAL
Nduduzo Makhathini
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Matt Garrison
RÁDIO MATRIX