ArtistInfo

Johnny Carson

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Musician of R&B/Soul and Electronic
A.k.a. Johnny Montgomery Carson

Guitarist and actor Johnny Montgomery Carson, was born in California, right off of Route 66. While attending Eisenhower High School in California, his music mentor became Professor Karlton Hester currently a UCSC Music Professor. Professor Hester would bring artist such as Dexter Gordon, Ed Thigpen & Buddy Collete (Hester's friends) to play concerts with the High School stage band and this exposure to these artist had a big influence on Johnny. Hester even recorded his stage band creating a realistic musical direction for many of his students. Professor Karlton Hester remains his mentor to this day. In 1976 Johnny made his first trip to Europe performing with his brother Bill, in a Rock/Soul group. Soon after arriving, he met Leif Kiviharju. Kiviharju and Carson created "Clovis" and Johnny performed with this Fusion trio out of Helsinki Finland. He has spent many years, on and off, in Scandinavia performing, recording and jamming with Finnish artist such as Leif Kiviharju, Pave Maijanen, and he jammed often with Jukka Tolonen and Coste Apetrea. Johnny was influenced by international musicians while in Scandanavia, with so many of them passing thru for shows and gigs. Johnny would later form a band while living in Los Angeles, called "Cosmic Test Tubes". His cousin Donald Montgomery and entertainer Freddie Fly (X-Johnson Crew) kept him in Los Angeles playing and meeting musicians like the Gap Band, Parliament /Funkadelic and Bootsy. Johnny and Freddie Fly would often go to Backstage Management with demos trying to get help with the "Cosmic Test Tube" project. The late Glen Goins ( Parliament/Funkadelic) was a personal friend of Johnny and later his brother Kevin Goins (Quasar) would work with General Caine. Johnny also worked with General Caine as lead guitarist, songwriter, musical director and arranger for their album "Dangerous". Johnny worked with a band called "Bad Baby" while living in Oakland California, which included Dave Brown (ex-Carlos Santana bassist), Jerry Bell and Patryce Choc'Let Banks (Graham Central Station). Choc'Let exposed him to the music business and influenced him as to how to make a living as a musician. He also worked with a band named "Alexandrite" with band leader Fred Johnson (brother of Ralph Johnson of Earth, Wind & Fire). This project gave Johnny exposure to new disciplines and was a great opportunity for him to be exposed to some members of Earth, Wind & Fire. While working in Chicago, Johnny was nick named "Route 66" by some musicians he worked with. He played rhythm guitar for the blues guitarist Buddy Guy and claims it was 8 weeks of guitar school. These shows were at Buddy's old club named CheckerBoard Lounge (right inside the Loop) . He was also fortunate enough to jam with John Lee Hooker in a music store, and he has jammed on the streets of Chicago with Snooky Pryor a couple of times. Johnny was a musical director for Maverick Flats in Inglewood California, helping the owner John Daniels prepare new talent for recording and performing on European tours. At Maverick Flats he worked with such artist as Lakeside, Howard Hewett, Robert & Ralph Deblanc and others. With his new band he sees himself creating a more Blues /Jazz style of Fusion, while also returning to the more lead guitar driven types of music which he created with his European band. Johnny has developed a live presentation that works for concerts, jazz clubs and music festivals. He is also involved in a project which focuses on his Montgomery influence's and inspirations with Jazz drummer Frank Wilson. Johnny has been featured and presented at music festivals and universities.

Genres

• R&B/Soul
• Electronic

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