Guitarist Jef Lee Johnson has died at 54 in his hometown of Philadephia. Known for working with varied artists such as McCoy Tyner, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Erykah Badu, Johnson was a widely respected live and session musician. Producer Aaron Luis Levinson described his playing as follows at philly.com:
(P)entatonic funky simplicity mated with an avant-gardist’s sense of searching and a jazz cat’s manual dexterity … literally unlike anyone else that ever played the guitar.
Read more about Jef Lee Johnson at philly.com
February 5, 2013 at 3:48 pm
[...] the recently departed Jeff Lee Johnson displaying his affable nature and commanding improv skills in a clip from [...]