Keg Johnson

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Frederic Homer (Keg) Johnson was a jazz trombonist who was born in Dallas, Texas 19 November 1908. His father was a choir director there and also worked at a local Studebaker plant where Keg also worked for a while. Keg and his older brother Budd Johnson began their musical careers singing and playing first with their father and later with Portia Pittman, daughter of Booker T. Washington. Keg played various instruments but is most noted for the trombone. The two brothers played in Dallas-area bands as the Blue Moon Chasers and later in Ben Smith's Music Makers. Eventually they performed with an Amarillo group led by Gene Coy called The Happy Black Aces. Around 1928, in Kansas City, Keg and Budd played in several bands but by 1930 Keg left for Chicago to play with Louis Armstrong, recording his his first solo on Armstrong's Basin Street Blues album. When in 1933 Keg went to New York, he played with such greats as Fletcher Henderson and Benny Carter, eventually playing with Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club. Keg remained with Cab Calloway for some 15 years before finally moving to Los Angeles where he briefly changed careers renovating houses, but he didn't stay away long. The 1950's found Keg in New York where he and Budd recorded the album Let's Swing. In 1961, Keg began playing with Ray Charles and was still in his band when Keg died in Chicago on 8 November 1967.

Keg Johnson Sr. had a son, Frederic Homer Johnson who is also called "Keg", a record producer whose first production was the R&B oldies hit, "You Got Me Going In Circles". He also produced The Sylvers, Lakeside, Shalimar, Levert, The Brothers Johnson, Gene Harris, Bobby Womack, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and more. Keg has written screen plays about the life of his father and uncle, including "Ballyhoo" which is a wonderful historical account of the birth of Bebop Jazz. Keg also has a copy of a book that Keg Sr. wrote in letters to little Keg wherein he would add a little more to the story until little Keg looked forward to his dad's letters. This story is wonderfully imaginative and fit for animation. Today, Keg Jr. is working on a book about his own memoirs.

Keg Johnson Jr., the record producer, has a daughter, Medina Noelle Johnson, born 17 June 1984 in Santa Monica CA, who is an extremely talented vocalist and who has collaborated with her cousin, Alfred "Chaka" "Prodigy" Johnson of the rap group Mobb Deep. Keg Jr. also has a son, Joshua Frederic Keg Johnson, born 05 August 1994, in Santa Monica CA, who has shown talent for stringed instruments and who favorite instrument is the bass fiddle. The coincindence should be noted that Keg Jr.'s godfather was Milt Hinton, the famous bass fiddler and long time friend to Keg Johnson Sr. Joshua is Keg Johnson III and lives with his mother in El Paso TX.