Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson was born February 8, 1899, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Some sources give his birth year as 1894 or 1889.) He studied violin, piano, and guitar as a child and learned to play various other instruments, including the mandolin, but he concentrated on the guitar throughout his professional career.
In 1917, Johnson joined a revue that toured England, returning home in 1919 to find that all of his family, except his brother James, had died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. He and his brother settled in St. Louis in 1921, where they performed as a duo. Lonnie also worked on riverboats and in the orchestra of Charlie Creath.
In 1925, Johnson entered and won a blues contest, the prize being a recording contract with Okeh Records. Between 1925 and 1932 he made about 130 recordings for Okeh, many of which sold well (making him one of the most popular Okeh artists).
In the late 1920s, Johnson recorded variously with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. He pioneered guitar solo and excelled in purely instrumental pieces, some of which he famously recorded with the white jazz guitarist Eddie Lang.
By the late 1930s, he was recording for Decca, and in 1939, for Bluebird. He recorded 34 tracks for Bluebird over the next five years.
After World War II, Johnson branched out from blues and jazz to rhythm and blues, having a major hit in 1948 with “Tomorrow Night.” After a brief period of r&b fame he worked in a steel foundry and as a janitor. In 1959, disc jockey Chris Albertson located him and brought him back into the recording studio. Young audiences began to appreciate folk music, and veteran performers like Johnson stepped out of obscurity.
Lonnie Johnson relocated to Canada in 1965. In March 1969 he was hit by a car while walking on a sidewalk in Toronto, and never fully recovered from his injuries. He was able to return to the stage for one performance at Massey Hall on February 23, 1970, and sang a couple of songs with Buddy Guy; Johnson received a standing ovation.
Lonnie Johnson died in Toronto on June 16, 1970. – adapted from Wikipedia
