Alfonzo "Lonnie" Johnson (February 8, 1894 – June 6, 1970) was a pioneering blues and jazz singer/guitarist born in New Orleans, Louisiana. There is some dispute over the year of his birth, but 1894 is what appears on his passport. Raised in a family of musicians, Johnson studied violin and guitar as a child, but concentrated on the latter throughout his professional career. A 1917 tour to England with a revue may have saved his life, for he returned to New Orleans in 1919 to find that most of his family had died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... June 6 is the 157th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (158th in leap years), with 208 days remaining. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... The blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on a pentatonic scale and a characteristic twelve-bar chord progression. ... Jazz is an original American musical art form originating around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans, rooted in Western music technique and theory, and is marked by the profound cultural contributions of African Americans. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Crescent City, The Big Easy, The City That Care Forgot Location Location in the State of Louisiana and the United States Coordinates , Government Country State Parish United States Louisiana Orleans Parish, Louisiana Founded 1718 Mayor Ray Nagin (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 350. ... Official language(s) English and French Capital Baton Rouge Largest city New Orleans at last census; probably Baton Rouge since Hurricane Katrina Area  Ranked 31st  - Total 51,885 sq. ... The title page of European Union member state passports bears the name European Union, then the name of the issuing country, in the official languages of all EU countries. ... A violin The violin is a bowed stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a perfect fifth apart. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Spanish Flu Pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza Pandemic, the 1918 Flu Epidemic, and La Grippe, was an unusually severe and deadly strain of influenza, a viral infectious disease, that killed some 25 million to 50 million people worldwide in 1918 and 1919. ...

In the early 1920s, Johnson worked with the orchestras of Charlie Creath and Fate Marable on riverboats, but he made St. Louis his home in 1925. There he entered and won an Okeh Records blues contest that resulted in his making a series of memorable recordings for the label between 1925 and 1932, including guitar duets with Eddie Lang and vocal duets with Victoria Spivey. In the 1920s, Johnson also made guest appearances on records by Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, the Duke Ellington orchestra, and The Chocolate Dandies, playing 12-string guitar solos in an extraordinary, pioneering single-string style that greatly influenced such future jazz guitarists as Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, and gave the instrument new meaning as a jazz voice. Fate Marable (2 December 1890 - 16 January 1947) was a jazz pianist and bandleader. ... A first class tourist riverboat High speed planing riverboat High speed hydrofoil riverboat Local passenger transport craft Riverboat specialized for cargo truck transport Self propelled gravel barge M.V. Splendid China layout A riverboat is a specialized watercraft (vessel) designed for operating on inland waterways. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Gateway City, Gateway to the West, or Mound City Location Location in the state of Missouri Coordinates , Government Country State County United States Missouri Independent City Mayor Francis G. Slay (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 66. ... Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918; from the late 1920s on was a subsidiary of Columbia Records. ... Eddie Lang (October 25, 1902 – March 26, 1933) was a jazz guitarist, considered by many the finest of his era. ... Victoria Spivey (died 1976) was an American female blues singer. ... Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899–May 24, 1974), also known simply as Duke (see Jazz royalty), was an American jazz composer, pianist, and bandleader. ... (Redirected from 12 string guitar) The twelve string guitar is an acoustic or electric guitar with twelve strings, which produces a richer, more ringing tone than a standard six string guitar. ... Charlie Christian (29 July 1916 – 2 March 1942) was an American jazz guitarist. ... Django (left) & Grappelli (right). ...

Lonnie Johnson's career was a rollercoaster ride that sometimes took him away from music. In between great musical accomplishments, he found it necessary to take menial jobs that ranged from working in a steel foundry to mopping floors as a janitor. He was working at Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Hotel in 1959 when WHAT-FM disc jockey Chris Albertson happened upon him. Albertson succeeded in securing for Johnson a Chicago engagement at the Playboy Club, which launched yet another comeback. Johnson subsequently performed with Duke Ellington and his orchestra and with an all-star folk concert, both at Town Hall, New York City. He also toured Europe and recorded several albums for the Prestige Bluesville label, some with Elmer Snowden, and one with his Okeh vocal partner, Victoria Spivey. To his great regret, Johnson was always tagged as a blues artist, and he found it difficult to be regarded as anything else. "I had done some singing by then," he explained when asked why he entered the Okeh contest, "but I still didn't take it as seriously as my guitar playing, and I guess I would have done anything to get recorded--it just happened to be a blues contest, so I sang the blues." Flag Seal Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates , Government Country  State   County United States  Pennsylvania   Philadelphia Founded Incorporated October 27, 1682 October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 369. ... Chris Albertson (born Christiern Gunnar Albertson in Reykjavík, Iceland on October 18, 1931) is a New York City-based jazz journalist, writer and record producer. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 606. ... Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899–May 24, 1974), also known simply as Duke (see Jazz royalty), was an American jazz composer, pianist, and bandleader. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... Although Elmer Snowden, born in Baltimore October 9, 1900, was one of the most talented banjo players of the jazz age, he also played guitar and, in the early stages of his career, all the reed instruments. ...

Johnson died in Ontario, Canada, June 16, 1970 of complications resulting from a 1969 auto accident. He was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame in 1997. Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Official languages English Flower White trillium Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 106 24 Area Total  - Land  - Water    (% of total)  Ranked 4th 1... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Bob Dylan wrote about the performing method he learned from Johnson in Chronicles, Vol. 1. Dylan thinks Robert Johnson had learned a lot from Lonnie. Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and poet whose enduring contributions to American song are often compared, in fame and influence, to those of Stephen Foster, Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and Hank Williams. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... For other people named Robert Johnson, see Robert Johnson (disambiguation). ...

See also

• List of blues musicians
• List of jazz musicians

Performers in the blues style range from primitive, one-chord Delta players to big bands to country music to rock and roll to classical music. ... This is a list of jazz musicians on whom Wikipedia has articles. ...

External links

• Discography and brief biography
• Biography
• Article About Lonnie Johnson - by Dr. Frank Hoffmann