Alphonso Johnson Archives - Page 2

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Weather Report, by Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter. To help celebrate, the Zawinul estate is releasing Weather Report: Live in Berlin 1975, a comprehensive box set featuring the group’s performance at 1975 Jazzstage Berlin. The CD/DVD set features Weather Report’s 1975 line-up, with Alphonso Johnson on bass, drummer Chester Thompson...

Bobby & the Midnites was a side project for Grateful Dead guitarist/singer Bob Weir, with one album release in 1981. Here’s the band in a live performance of “Bahama Mama”, featuring Alphonso Johnson on bass, with Bobby Cochran on guitar, Billy Cobham on drums and Dave Garland on keys and sax.

Here we go… a little Alphonso Johnson to start off the weekend. This performance, filmed on July 6, 1976 in Montreux, Switzerland, is the Bill Cobham / George Duke Band playing “Red Baron”. The band includes Billy Cobham on drums, George Duke on keyboards, John Scofield on guitar and Johnson on bass. Holy smokes!

Alphonso Johnson is a favorite of ours, and he proves once again how Joe Zawinul really knew how to pick bass players. Alphonso was replaced by Jaco Pastorius, and both appeared on Weather Report’s Black Market. Many people think Jaco held down the bass for the title track, but it was indeed Alphonso Johnson. Jaco performed on two of the...

Wayne Shorter’s performance at the 1996 Montreux Jazz Festival is now available on DVD. Bassist and formerly Shorter’s Weather Report band mate Alphonso Johnson, Stanley Clarke and Ron Carter all make appearances on the DVD, which includes bonus footage from both the 1991 and 1992 Montreux performances. The complete line-up for the 1996 show: Wayne Shorter (saxophones) James Beard (keyboards)...

Indie label Iconoclassic Records is reissuing Weather Report’s fifth studio album, Tale Spinnin’. Released in 1975, the album features amazing bass work by Alphonso Johnson, who was later replaced by Jaco Pastorius after Johnson left to form a band with Billy Cobham and George Duke. The album received the Jazz Album of the Year award, from Down Beat magazine’s 40th...