CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
Josh Johnson
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City/Place:
Los Angeles
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Country:
United States
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Hometown:
Chicago
Life
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Bio:
Josh Johnson is a saxophonist, keyboardist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger. His solo debut Freedom Exercise (Northern Spy) was featured in Rolling Stone’s Best Music of 2020 and Bandcamp’s Best Jazz Albums of 2020. Pitchfork called the record “excellent, daringly melodic” and PostGenre praised it as “a songwriting marvel”.
Johnson is a regular collaborator with some of contemporary music’s most innovative artists, including Jeff Parker, Makaya McCraven, Nate Mercereau, Marquis Hill, Kiefer and the Chicago Underground Quartet. Parker’s widely-acclaimed 2022 record Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy features Johnson on saxophone and effects as part of a longstanding quartet. This is the most recent in a series of Parker’s records to highlight Johnson, with the latter also contributing saxophone and synths to 2016’s The New Breed and 2020’s Suite for Max Brown.
Between 2018 and 2022 Johnson held the role of Musical Director for soul singer Leon Bridges, with whom he also played keyboards and saxophone. During his time with Bridges, Johnson performed throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, with performances at the Hollywood Bowl, Glastonbury and the Sydney Opera House. Along with Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes), Johnson arranged 14 of Bridges’ songs for a performance with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, also contributing a choral arrangement and directing the concert.
Johnson can be heard on records by Harry Styles, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Moonchild, Broken Bells, Dawes, Louis Cole and Carlos Niño, among others. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
My Recordings
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For Audio, Visual:
Meshell Ndegeocello
The Omnichord Real Book 2023
producer, saxophone & effects, vocals
Josh Johnson
Freedom Exercise 2020
alto saxophone, synthesizers, samplers, wurlitzer, mellotron, flute, bass clarinet
Gregory Uhlmann
Again and Again 2023
alto saxophone & effects, keyboards, bass clarinet, flute
King Tuff
Smalltown Stardust 2023
piano
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet
Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy 2022
alto saxophone & pedals
Nate Mercereau
Sundays Expansion 2022
alto saxophone & effects, sampler,
Broken Bells
Into The Blue 2022
baritone saxophone
Jeremy Cunningham/Dustin Laurenzi/Paul Bryan
A Better Ghost 2022
alto saxophone & effects
Harry Styles
Harry’s House 2022
saxophone/sax synth & effects
Anna Butterss
Activities 2022
alto saxophone
Carlos Niño
Extra Presence 2022
alto saxophone, synthesizer
Moonchild
Starfruit 2022
alto saxophone
Ezra Furman
All Of Us Flames 2022
saxophones
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Return of the Dream Canteen 2022
alto saxophone
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Unlimited Love 2022
alto saxophone
Kiefer
When There’s Love Around 2021
alto saxophone
Jamire Williams
But Only After You Have Suffered 2021
synthesizer, mellotron, programming
Leon Bridges
Gold-Diggers Sound 2021
alto saxophone
Snaarj
Snaarj II 2021
alto saxophone, flute, composer, pump organ
Nate Mercereau
Sundays 2021
alto saxophone & effects, sampler
Lee Pardini
Homebodies 2021
alto saxophone
Melody Gardot
Sunset in the Blue (deluxe) 2021
alto saxophone
Chicago Underground Quartet
Good Days 2020
wurlitzer, piano, organ, synth bass
Jeff Parker
Suite for Max Brown 2020
alto saxophone, electric piano
Makaya McCraven
Universal Beings E&F Sides 2020
alto saxophone
Jeremy Cunningham
The Weather Up There 2020
synthesizers, wurlitzer, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, composer
Gregory Uhlmann
Neighborhood Watch 2020
synthesizers
Carlos Niño
Actual Presence 2020
synthesizer
Aditya Prakash Ensemble
Diaspora Kid 2020
alto saxophone
Joshua Crumbly
Rise 2020
alto saxophone
Marquis Hill
Love Tape 2019
alto saxophone
Louis Cole
Live Sesh and Xtra Songs 2019
alto saxophone
Nate Mercereau
Joy Techniques 2019
alto saxophone
Dexter Story
Bahir 2019
flute, alto saxophone
Mark de Clive-Lowe
Heritage II 2019
flute, alto saxophone & effects
Mark de Clive-Lowe
Heritage 2019
flute, alto saxophone & effects
Daniel Rotem & Josh Johnson
Sweet Stuff 2019
alto saxophone, arranger
Sara Gazarek
Thirsty Ghost 2019
horn orchestration, arranger alto saxophone
Makaya McCraven
Universal Beings 2018
alto saxophone
Dawes
Passwords 2018
alto saxophone
Marquis Hill
Modern Flows Vol 2 2018
alto saxophone
Anthony Fung
Flashpoint 2018
alto saxophone
Mark de Clive-Lowe
Live at the Blue Whale 2017
alto saxophone, flute, composer
Carlos Niño & Friends
Going Home 2017
alto saxophone, synthesizers, flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone
Holophonor
Light Magnet 2017
alto saxophone, composer
Joshua White
13 Short Stories 2017
alto saxophone
Josh Nelson
The Sky Remains 2017
alto saxophone, flute, composer
Jonah Levine Collective
Attention Deficit 2017
alto saxophone
Mike Lebrun
Shades 2017
alto saxophone
Jeff Parker
The New Breed 2016
alto saxophone, wurlitzer, flute, mellotron, clarinet, rhodes
Mast
Love and War 2016
alto saxophone
Jeremy Cunningham
re: dawn (from far) 2016
alto saxophone, composer
Michael Buble
Nobody But Me 2016
alto saxophone
Holophonor
Holophonor 2014
alto saxophone, composer
Snaarj
Levels 2012
alto saxophone, composer
Clips (more may be added)
Empowered by the small-world "miracle" behind 6 degrees of separation (see Wolfram below)...
Wolfram MathWorld
Even God is in the Matrix.
There are certain countries the names of which fire the imagination. Brazil is one of them, an amalgam of primitive and sophisticated, jungle and elegance, luscious jazz harmonics and complex rhythms... The Integrated Global Creative Economy (we invented the concept) uncoils from this sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix — concatenating branches of a virtual rainforest tree rooted in Bahia, canopy spreading to embrace the entire planet...
Ex Terra Brasilis
Ground Zero for the project was the culture born in Brazil's quilombos (in Angola a kilombo is a village; in Brazil it is a village either founded by Africans or Afro-Brazilians who had escaped slavery, or — as in the case of São Francisco do Paraguaçu below — occupied by such after abandonment by the ruling class):

...theme music for a Brazilian Matrix, from an Afro-Brazilian Mass by
Milton Nascimento
Celebration of this Mass was prohibited by the Vatican and four songs on the recording were forbidden by Brazil's censors (the dictatorship was still in force).
Like a trick of the mind’s light, different places scattered across the face of the globe seem at times to almost exist in different universes, as if they were permeated throughout with something akin to 19th century luminiferous aether, unique, determined by that place's history. Standing on beach or escarpment in Salvador and looking out across the Baía de Todos os Santos to the great Recôncavo...the sertão — backlands — ranging beyond...and mindful of what happened in both, one must be led to the inevitable conclusion that one is in a place unique to history, and to the present:

The Bahian Recôncavo was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind’s existence on this planet.
Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.
Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil’s national music — the pandeiro — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil’s culturally fecund nordeste/northeast (where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa — Lagoon of the Canoe — and raised in Olho d’Águia — Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil’s aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming an unprecedented fourth. Great culture is great power. And in a small world great things are possible.
—built in Bahia
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"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...
The Brazilian Matrix has been accessed from these places over the past month (a marker can represent multiple accesses):

I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
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 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, 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've lived here in Brazil for 32 years now) 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.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
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