LaMont Johnson

LaMont Johnson (1941-1999) was an American jazz pianist who has played in the hard bop and post-bop genres. He recorded extensively with Jackie McLean in the 1960s, and has also recorded with Ornette Coleman, Kenny Burrell, Bud Shank, Paul Beaver, and Bernie Krause, among others.

LaMont and his brother Keith established a record company (funded by MBA, a midtown production company) on the Lower East Side in New York City in 1966. It was located on 53 Pitt Street, in a former seltzer factory, and was named Down East Records. It housed offices for Down East records and a small recording studio in the back of the building. He released a R&B single by "Justin" entitled "Right Now". This became one of the first R&B records to utilize a Latin/jazz/R&B fusion in commercial music. It was in that studio where he also recorded some demo recordings for Cat Mother (a rock group bought by Jimi Hendrix) and an Ornette Coleman Album.

Many of the jazz musicians from Slugs, a jazz club in the East Village, would use Down East to record demos.

In 1967, the Down East talent put on a show at the bandshell in the East Village's Tompkins Square Park.

Down East Records had one record that made it to the airwaves (Right Now) and it was played on WWRL once every few hours.

They went under in 1969.

Their success included major sales in Africa, and success in the Eastern region ranging from Washington DC to Baltamore, MD. The artist performed on TV shows like the Hit Kit and did radio interviews. Other staff members that worked with LaMont at Down East was Harry Bass who had previously worked with Motown, Jimmy Hall who had worked with and sang with many successful groups in the New York area, and James (Jimmy Mack) McNary who had worked as a musician/writer/promoter with many New York record companies.

Lamont also worked on an album entitled Old and New Gospel during this period.