- Plas Johnson
Plas John Johnson Jr. (born
July 21 ,1931 ) is an Americansoul-jazz andhard bop tenor saxophonist , probably most familiar as the lead onHenry Mancini ’s "The Pink Panther Theme ".Born in
Donaldsonville, Louisiana , he and his pianist brother Ray first recorded as the Johnson Brothers inNew Orleans in the late 1940s, and Plas then toured with R&B singer Charles Brown. After army service, he moved to Los Angeles and began session recordings as a full-time musician, backing artists such asB.B. King andJohnny Otis as well as scores of other R&B performers. An early supporter wasMaxwell Davis , who hired him to take over his own parts so that he could concentrate on producing sessions for the Modern record label.Recruited by
Capitol Records in the mid-1950s, Johnson also played on innumerable records byPeggy Lee ,Nat "King" Cole ,Frank Sinatra and others. He remained a leading session player for almost twenty years, averaging two sessions a day and playing everything from movie soundtracks to rock and roll singles, such asRicky Nelson . He played on many of theBeach Boys ’ records, and was an integral part of a number of instrumental groups that existed in name only, such asB. Bumble and the Stingers . In 1963, he recorded the Pink Panther theme, but played on only the first few of the cartoon series. Another solo for a well-known television series was on "The Odd Couple"'s theme music. Johnson was also used by Motown, and played on hits byMarvin Gaye ,the Supremes and others.In 1970, he joined the studio band for "The
Merv Griffin Show " and also played with a number of jazz and swing bands of the period. He continues to record and perform, particularly at jazz festivals.Johnson plays T990 (
brass ) and T9937 (solidsilver ) tenor saxophones made by Yanagisawa, fitted with a Berg Larsen 2 mouthpiece and Rico Plasticover 2 reeds.External links
* [http://www.spaceagepop.com/johnson.htm More information]
* [http://www.plasjohnson.com/ Plas Johnson's homepage]
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