Josh Johnson
GROUNDTONE (Day 1)
Josh Johnson, a saxophonist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and Grammy Award-winning producer playing selections from his second solo album, Unusual Object, a striking work of futuristic jazz and modern composition.
GROUNDTONE is PS21’s new, three-day weekend of immersive concerts and adventurous music.
A sonic exploration of PS21’s untamed natural landscape, the festival invites listeners to experience dazzling performances and site-specific creations by visionary, genre-defying artists in settings across our grounds.
Part of Upstate Art Weekend, each day will include free performances, workshops, open rehearsals, and community music making open to all. Highlights include Lina Lapelytė’s immersive installation Study of Slope and ticketed concerts each evening.
Josh Johnson is a saxophonist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and Grammy Award-winning producer. His second solo album, Unusual Object, a striking work of futuristic jazz and modern composition, released April 5 on Northern Spy Records. This spare work for processed saxophone and subtle samples shows Johnson further sharpening his unique compositional voice. Unusual Object, Johnson says, “is a development and documentation of a more personal world of sound. What’s it like for me to create the context for my sound, to frame it myself?”
His solo debut Freedom Exercise (Northern Spy) was featured in Rolling Stone’s Best Music of 2020 and Bandcamp’s Best Jazz Albums of 2020. Pitchfork called the record “excellent, daringly melodic” and PostGenre praised it as “a songwriting marvel”. Johnson is a regular collaborator with some of contemporary music’s most innovative artists, including Jeff Parker, Makaya McCraven, Nate Mercereau, Marquis Hill, and Kiefer. Parker’s widely-acclaimed 2022 record Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy features Johnson on saxophone and effects as part of the longstanding quartet. This is the most recent in a series of Parker’s records to highlight Johnson, with the latter also contributing saxophone and synths to 2016’s The New Breed and 2020’s Suite for Max
Brown.
Between 2018 and 2022 Johnson held the role of Musical Director for soul singer Leon Bridges, with whom he also played keyboards and saxophone. During his time with Bridges, Johnson performed throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, with performances at the Hollywood Bowl, Glastonbury and the Sydney Opera House. Along with Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes), Johnson arranged 14 of Bridges’ songs for a performance with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, also contributing a choral arrangement and directing the concert
Johnson produced and appears on Meshell Ndegeocello’s 2023 album The Omnichord Real Book which was awarded the 2024 Grammy for Best Alternative Jazz Album. He can also be heard on wide-ranging records by artist such as Harry Styles, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Moonchild, Broken Bells, Miley Cyrus, Louis Cole and Carlos Niño, among others. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
