Jai Johanny Johanson
Encyclopedia
Jai Johanny Johanson frequently known by the stage name
Jaimoe, is an American
drummer
and percussionist. He is best known as one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band
.
world and began drumming at an early age, often accompanied by friend Lamar Williams
on bass. Johanson backed soul singers
, including a membership in Otis Redding
's touring band in 1966, and afterward touring with the acclaimed soul duo, Sam & Dave
. After joining up with Duane Allman
in February 1969, he quickly became the first recruit into Allman's new group, soon joined by bassist Berry Oakley
, fellow drummer Butch Trucks, guitarist Dickey Betts
and lastly Allman's younger brother, singer, organist and pianist Gregg Allman
. The group, quickly named after the brothers Allman, began recording demos that April in Macon, Georgia
, which became the group's spiritual home.
(November 1969) and Idlewild South
(September 1970) brought positive critical reviews but only limited commercial success. Their third album, however, recorded live in March 1971 at one of their favorite concert halls, Bill Graham
's Fillmore East
in New York City in March 1971, made them one of the biggest rock acts in America. At Fillmore East
became a RIAA certified gold album in late October 1971, finally bringing the group the chart success that had eluded them. The band quickly suffered tragedy, however. Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident a few days later. Shaken by the loss of Allman, the group soldiered on and released Eat A Peach
, which reached #4 in the Billboard
charts in 1972, a hybrid studio
and live album
, with outtakes from the Fillmore East
concerts and studio cuts both with and without their original leader.
After touring in late 1971 and early- to mid-1972 as a five piece band, the group added keyboard
ist Chuck Leavell
to their line-up, and began recording their fifth album. After recording only a handful of tracks, however, Berry Oakley was also killed in a motorcycle accident mere blocks from where Duane Allman had been struck. Lamar Williams
, a bass guitar
ist who was a friend of Johansen, became a member of the group in the wake of Oakley's death. The album that resulted, 1973's Brothers and Sisters
, added more of a country feel to their trademark sound and gave the group their only hit single, "Ramblin' Man". Just prior to the release of the album, they co-headlined the largest one-day rock concert in American history, in 1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen
, complementing the Grateful Dead
, and The Band
as a support act.
In 1975, the Allman Brothers Band released the tepid Win, Lose or Draw
, which, while a chart success, signaled an end for the band. A growing distance between Gregg Allman
, who had risen to a defacto bandleader (then based in Los Angeles) and the rest of the band (still based in Macon, Georgia
) exacerbated tensions. Perhaps most telling, the double drums of Jaimoe and Trucks, a signature of the group's sound, turned up missing on two of the album's seven tracks, with the drumming provided by producer Johnny Sandlin and occasional session musician
, road drummer Bill Stewart (not the jazz drummer of the same name). The next year, the group disbanded in a storm of drug abuse
and acrimony involving Gregg Allman's testimony at the drug trial of former roadie, Scooter Herring. Betts and Allman focused on their own careers, while Johanson joined forces with Leavell and Williams in the jazz-rock combo Sea Level
. Johanson played with Sea Level on their first three albums, before rejoining the reformed Allman Brothers Band in 1979.
scene that viewed the Allman Brothers Band as one of the pioneering influences in the newly named genre
, Johanson helped lead the band back into national prominence. Though guitarist Warren Haynes
, bassist Allen Woody
and pianist Johnny Neel
(all having joined the Allmans with their second reformation in 1989) would all leave, as would Haynes' replacement, Jack Pearson, Jaimoe remained. However, he watched Dickey Betts
' acrimonious departure in 2000, which was ultimately to be replaced by a returning Warren Haynes. Despite their difficulties, he continued with the band.
, bassist Oteil Burbridge
, guitar and vocalist, Warren Haynes
, and slide guitar
ist Derek Trucks
. Every March, the band had taken up a residency at New York's Beacon Theatre for several weeks of shows, often featuring an extended percussion battle between Trucks, Jaimoe and Quiñones. This practice came to a final halt, after forty years of performances since the Cirque du Soleil
was given a permanent contract year-round at the Beacon Theatre. To celebrate this final tradition, in 2009, the band dedicated that year's multiple concerts to the late Duane Allman, inviting special guests from many genres to participate with them, including Eric Clapton
, Levon Helm
, Trey Anastasio
, and many others.
Jaimoe leads a jazz-rock collective known as Jaimoe's Jasssz Band during Allman Brothers Band breaks, playing clubs in New York and his adopted home of Connecticut.
Jaimoe and the Allman Brothers Band are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
.
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
Jaimoe, is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
drummer
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and percussionist. He is best known as one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...
.
Early years
Johanson came up in the R&BRhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
world and began drumming at an early age, often accompanied by friend Lamar Williams
Lamar Williams
Lamar Williams was an American musician, most known as the bassist for The Allman Brothers Band and Sea Level....
on bass. Johanson backed soul singers
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, including a membership in Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
's touring band in 1966, and afterward touring with the acclaimed soul duo, Sam & Dave
Sam & Dave
Sam & Dave were an American soul and rhythm and blues duo who performed together from 1961 through 1981. The tenor voice was Samuel David Moore , and the baritone/tenor voice was Dave Prater .Sam & Dave are members of...
. After joining up with Duane Allman
Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman was an American guitarist, session musician and the primary co-founder of the southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band...
in February 1969, he quickly became the first recruit into Allman's new group, soon joined by bassist Berry Oakley
Berry Oakley
Raymond Berry Oakley III , was an American bassist and one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band.-Biography:...
, fellow drummer Butch Trucks, guitarist Dickey Betts
Dickey Betts
Forrest Richard "Dickey" Betts is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and composer best known as a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and also won with the band a best rock performance Grammy Award for his...
and lastly Allman's younger brother, singer, organist and pianist Gregg Allman
Gregg Allman
Gregory Lenoir Allman , known as Gregg Allman, is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia...
. The group, quickly named after the brothers Allman, began recording demos that April in Macon, Georgia
Macon, Georgia
Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...
, which became the group's spiritual home.
1970-1980
The band's mixture of blues, country, jazz, and rock, spearheaded by the dual lead guitars of Betts and Allman, and the double-drums of Trucks and Jaimoe, were unique at that time, and they rapidly became known as an act that "you had to see live". Their first two albums, their eponymous debutThe Allman Brothers Band (album)
The Allman Brothers Band, released in 1969, was the eponymous debut album of Southern rock group, The Allman Brothers Band.The album sold poorly outside of Southern United States, reaching #188 on the Billboard charts...
(November 1969) and Idlewild South
Idlewild South
Idlewild South is the second album of The Allman Brothers Band, released in 1970.Unlike the band's self-titled debut album, Idlewild South enjoyed some popular success as well as critical enthusiasm, mostly due to what Rolling Stone magazine called "briefer, tighter, less 'heavy' numbers" which...
(September 1970) brought positive critical reviews but only limited commercial success. Their third album, however, recorded live in March 1971 at one of their favorite concert halls, Bill Graham
Bill Graham
William Carvel "Bill" Graham, PC QC is a former Canadian politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, and Leader of the Opposition and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.-Personal life:...
's Fillmore East
Fillmore East
The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the East Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City. It was open from 1968 to 1971, and featured some of the biggest acts in rock music at the time...
in New York City in March 1971, made them one of the biggest rock acts in America. At Fillmore East
At Fillmore East
At Fillmore East is a double live album by The Allman Brothers Band. The band's breakthrough success, At Fillmore East was released in July 1971. It ranks Number 49 among Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and remains among the top-selling albums in the band’s catalogue...
became a RIAA certified gold album in late October 1971, finally bringing the group the chart success that had eluded them. The band quickly suffered tragedy, however. Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident a few days later. Shaken by the loss of Allman, the group soldiered on and released Eat A Peach
Eat a Peach
Eat a Peach is a 1972 double album by the American Southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band; it was the last to include founding member and lead slide-guitar player Duane Allman, who was killed in a motorcycle accident on October 29, 1971 while the album was being recorded.-History:This album...
, which reached #4 in the Billboard
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
charts in 1972, a hybrid studio
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
and live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
, with outtakes from the Fillmore East
Fillmore East
The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the East Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City. It was open from 1968 to 1971, and featured some of the biggest acts in rock music at the time...
concerts and studio cuts both with and without their original leader.
After touring in late 1971 and early- to mid-1972 as a five piece band, the group added keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
ist Chuck Leavell
Chuck Leavell
Chuck Leavell is an American pianist and keyboardist, who was a member of The Allman Brothers Band throughout the height of their popularity, a founding member of the jazz-rock combo Sea Level, a frequently-employed session musician, and later, the keyboardist for Eric Clapton and The Rolling...
to their line-up, and began recording their fifth album. After recording only a handful of tracks, however, Berry Oakley was also killed in a motorcycle accident mere blocks from where Duane Allman had been struck. Lamar Williams
Lamar Williams
Lamar Williams was an American musician, most known as the bassist for The Allman Brothers Band and Sea Level....
, a bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
ist who was a friend of Johansen, became a member of the group in the wake of Oakley's death. The album that resulted, 1973's Brothers and Sisters
Brothers and Sisters (album)
Brothers and Sisters is the fifth album by The Allman Brothers Band, released in 1973.The group's first album recorded completely after the death of leader Duane Allman, and mostly after the death of bassist Berry Oakley, Brothers and Sisters saw the Allmans reach a commercial peak. The album...
, added more of a country feel to their trademark sound and gave the group their only hit single, "Ramblin' Man". Just prior to the release of the album, they co-headlined the largest one-day rock concert in American history, in 1973 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen
Summer Jam at Watkins Glen
The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen was a 1973 rock festival which once received the Guinness Book of World Records entry for "Largest audience at a pop festival." An estimated 600,000 rock fans came to the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway outside of Watkins Glen, New York on July 28, 1973, to see The...
, complementing the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
, and The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
as a support act.
In 1975, the Allman Brothers Band released the tepid Win, Lose or Draw
Win, Lose or Draw (album)
Win, Lose or Draw is the sixth album by The Allman Brothers Band, released in 1975. The record was the end of the line for the band at the time. After the very successful Brothers and Sisters two years previously, the group had fallen prey to internal tensions...
, which, while a chart success, signaled an end for the band. A growing distance between Gregg Allman
Gregg Allman
Gregory Lenoir Allman , known as Gregg Allman, is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia...
, who had risen to a defacto bandleader (then based in Los Angeles) and the rest of the band (still based in Macon, Georgia
Macon, Georgia
Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...
) exacerbated tensions. Perhaps most telling, the double drums of Jaimoe and Trucks, a signature of the group's sound, turned up missing on two of the album's seven tracks, with the drumming provided by producer Johnny Sandlin and occasional session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
, road drummer Bill Stewart (not the jazz drummer of the same name). The next year, the group disbanded in a storm of drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
and acrimony involving Gregg Allman's testimony at the drug trial of former roadie, Scooter Herring. Betts and Allman focused on their own careers, while Johanson joined forces with Leavell and Williams in the jazz-rock combo Sea Level
Sea Level (band)
Sea Level is the name of a fusion group that mixed jazz, blues and rock. It existed between 1976 and 1981. Initially, it was an offshoot of The Allman Brothers Band, but as tensions grew between the loss of two of its founding members, and personal greivances between Gregg Allman and other...
. Johanson played with Sea Level on their first three albums, before rejoining the reformed Allman Brothers Band in 1979.
1980-2000
After being terminated from the band in late 1980 due to increasing back problems stemming from a 1974 automobile accident, and the group's financial woes, Johanson lived near poverty in Macon for nearly a decade (playing off and on with "SouthBound" - Coop Frazier, Mike Joseph, Edd Anderson, and Stan Daniell at a small honkytonk in Forsyth, Georgia), before being invited back into the group in 1989. Reunited with the group and rejuvenated by the growing jam bandJam band
-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...
scene that viewed the Allman Brothers Band as one of the pioneering influences in the newly named genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
, Johanson helped lead the band back into national prominence. Though guitarist Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes is an American rock and blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work as long time guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan Coe and The Dickey...
, bassist Allen Woody
Allen Woody
Douglas Allen Woody was bass guitarist best known for his tenure in the rock groups The Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule, The Artimus Pyle Band, The Peter Criss Band, Blue Floyd, and Montage.-Biography:...
and pianist Johnny Neel
Johnny Neel
Johnny Neel is an American vocalist, songwriter, and musician based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is best known for his songwriting, stage, and session work for the Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule, and Dickey Betts....
(all having joined the Allmans with their second reformation in 1989) would all leave, as would Haynes' replacement, Jack Pearson, Jaimoe remained. However, he watched Dickey Betts
Dickey Betts
Forrest Richard "Dickey" Betts is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and composer best known as a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and also won with the band a best rock performance Grammy Award for his...
' acrimonious departure in 2000, which was ultimately to be replaced by a returning Warren Haynes. Despite their difficulties, he continued with the band.
2000-2010
The past two decades have seen renewed success for the band. Jaimoe, Butch Trucks and Gregg Allman have been joined by percussionist Marc QuiñonesMarc Quiñones
Marc Quiñones is an Puerto Rican American percussionist, a longtime player in salsa music, and a member of the Southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band....
, bassist Oteil Burbridge
Oteil Burbridge
Oteil Burbridge, in Washington, D.C.), is a Grammy Award-nominated American multi-instrumentalist, specializing on the bass guitar, trained in playing jazz and classical music from an early age. He has achieved fame primarily on bass guitar during the current resurgence of the Allman Brothers Band...
, guitar and vocalist, Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes is an American rock and blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work as long time guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan Coe and The Dickey...
, and slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
ist Derek Trucks
Derek Trucks
Derek Trucks is a Grammy Award-winning, American guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. He founded The Derek Trucks Band and worked as a session musician when he was still in his early teens. Throughout those teenage years, he toured with The Allman Brothers Band primarily as a slide...
. Every March, the band had taken up a residency at New York's Beacon Theatre for several weeks of shows, often featuring an extended percussion battle between Trucks, Jaimoe and Quiñones. This practice came to a final halt, after forty years of performances since the Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
was given a permanent contract year-round at the Beacon Theatre. To celebrate this final tradition, in 2009, the band dedicated that year's multiple concerts to the late Duane Allman, inviting special guests from many genres to participate with them, including Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
, Trey Anastasio
Trey Anastasio
Trey Anastasio is an American guitarist, composer, and vocalist most noted for his work with the rock band Phish...
, and many others.
Jaimoe leads a jazz-rock collective known as Jaimoe's Jasssz Band during Allman Brothers Band breaks, playing clubs in New York and his adopted home of Connecticut.
Jaimoe and the Allman Brothers Band are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
.
Jaimoe's Jasssz Band
- 2008 "Ed Blackwell Memorial Concert 2/27/2008" http://www.hittinthenote.com/cart/p-893-jaimoes-jasssz-bandbred-blackwell-memorialbrconcert-2272008.aspx
- 2008 "Live at The Double Down Grill 1/28/2006" http://www.hittinthenote.com/cart/p-892-jaimoes-jasssz-bandbrlive-at-the-double-down-grill-12806.aspx
External links
- Butch Trucks, Jaimoe Jai Johanny Johanson, Marc Quiñones at drummerworld.com