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Darren Johnston

Canada-born trumpeter/composer/educator Darren Johnston’s interests rotate primarily between performing all styles of jazz, purely improvised music, new music, and various other traditional musics, especially that of the Balkans, Greece, and Macedonia. He is especially drawn to music that tends to defy categorization, and is also generally open to further suggestions.

After twenty one years in the Bay Area, Johnston recently relocated to Brooklyn, NY in 2019. In the time since moving there, he has played and/or recorded withChes Smith, Dayna Stephens, Carmen Staaf, Michael Formanek, Tony Malaby, Michael Attias, Slavic Soul Party!, Raya Brass Band, The Peter Hess Quartet, Michael Vatcher, and many more.

As a composer he has written for ensembles ranging from small jazz groups, to big-bands, brass bands, string quartets, choirs, rock bands, and countless combinations thereof. He has been commissioned to write for dance, dance film, theater, video games, and by museums such as San Francisco’s De Young Museum, and other presenting organizations such as the Yerba Buena Garden Festival, and Intersection For The Arts.

He has performed and/or recorded with luminaries such as Marshall Allen, Gerald Cleaver, Fred Frith, ROVA Sax Quartet, Ben Goldberg, Allison Miller, Mark Dresser, Myra Melford, Marcus Shelby, Pete Escovedo, Erik Jekabson’s “Electric Squeezebox Orchestra,” and many others, across the USA and around the world.

As a bandleader, past projects include The United Brassworkers Front, The Nice Guy Trio, The Darren Johnston Quintet, The Pipes, Broken Shadows Family Band, Trans-Global People’s Chorus, and innumerable one-offs. Current projects include the Chicago-based Life In Time, featuring Geof Bradfield, Clark Sommers, and Dana Hall, a NYC-based trio, Breathing Room, featuring Carmen Staaf, and Michael Formanek, and the NYC-based Wild Awake quintet, featuring Dayna Stephens, Jacob Sacks, Sean Conly, and Ches Smith. An all-Canadian collective quartet, temporarily put on hold by the pandemic, is now preparing to pick up where it left off, featuring Anna Webber, Michael Bates, and Toronto-based Nick Fraser.

As an educator Johnston has taught at Stanford Jazz Workshop’s summer program and throughout the year in their “Giant Steps” program, Jazz Camp West, The Jazzschool, and as an adjunct at UC Berkeley. As a guest lecturer he has been invited to present master classes on free improvisation, holistic approaches to music theory and practice, and an introduction to music of the Balkans at institutions such as Sonoma State University, Cal Arts, and others.

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Radio & Podcasts

Darren Johnston, Rossi / Hess / Moran & Theo Jorgensmann

Read "Darren Johnston, Rossi / Hess / Moran & Theo Jorgensmann" reviewed by Maurice Hogue


This episode of One Man's Jazz is a very mixed bag. There's a preview of an upcoming box set of Charles Mingus' 1970 releases for Atlantic Records, some Jimi Hendrix on tuba from Germany's Pinguin Moschner, electronica from keyboardist Elias Stemeseder and drummer Christian Lillinger, the Polish duo of saxophonist Maciej Sikala and drummer Tomek Sowinsk}, a pair from Diskonife Records (Darren Johnston & the trio of Mick Rossi, Peter Hess and Matt Moran), and much more, including a look ...

3
Radio & Podcasts

Darren Johnston, Jazzanova, Ezra Collective, Minino Garay & More New Releases

Read "Darren Johnston, Jazzanova, Ezra Collective, Minino Garay & More New Releases" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


May the fun be with you, and the Funk of the Ezra Collective too, as well the speaking Tango of Minino Garay, the Strata records vault-digging of Jazzanova and much more!Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Ezra Collective “May the Funk Be with You" May the Funk Be with You -Single (Enter the Jungle) 0:16 Host talks 4:41 Jazzanova “Creative Musicians" Strata Records: The Sound of Detroit (Reimagined ...

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Album Review

Darren Johnston: Life in Time

Read "Life in Time" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Brooklyn-based trumpeter Darren Johnston traveled to Chicago in May 2021 to record Life in Time with three of his favorite musicians: saxophonist Geof Bradfield, bassist Clark Sommers and drummer Dana Hall who form their own working trio in the Windy City. The generally charming studio date encompasses ten original compositions, six by Johnston, four by Bradfield. Technically and musically, the foursome is splendid. What is missing—and it takes a tune or two to sink in—is the welcome ...

4
Album Review

The Flatland Quartet: Songs From The Urban Forest

Read "Songs From The Urban Forest" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


The members of The Flatland Quartet are not only accomplished improvisers, they are socially aware artists. Their activism permeates Songs From The Urban Forest. This is not only because the proceeds from its sale will be donated to the Sacramento Food Bank. All six interrelated pieces are simultaneously abstract and earthy, marked by a sublime balance of the cerebral and the emotive. Opening the set is “Joe Hill's Last and Final Will." It is built around the poem ...

12
Album Review

Aaron Bennett / Darren Johnston / Lisa Mezzacappa / Frank Rosaly: Shipwreck 4

Read "Shipwreck 4" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Chicago-based session ace and solo artist, drummer Frank Rosaly aligns with San Francisco Bay Area notables for a meeting of like-minded, highly skilled improvisers. After a gig in Frisco, the musicians' scheduled time to record this quartet date. Unfortunately, Shipwreck studios was destroyed in a fire a few months after this session and the musicians decided to pay a bit of homage via the album moniker. As improvisers amid the semi-structured song-forms, they do what they characteristically do ...

3
Album Review

Aaron Bennett / Darren Johnston / Lisa Mezzacappa / Frank Rosaly: Shipwreck 4

Read "Shipwreck 4" reviewed by John Sharpe


Named after the Oakland studio where the disc was recorded, the Shipwreck 4 brings together three West Coast improvisers with Chicago drummer Frank Rosaly for a program of six collectively created selections. As apparent on Everybody's Somebody's Nobody (Clean Feed, 2016), his duet with guitarist Fred Frith, trumpeter Darren Johnston's work maintains a melodic core, albeit one masked by occasional extended techniques. Aaron Bennett matches the trumpeter with adventurous but controlled tenor saxophone, delivered in a light airy tone. Bassist ...

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Album Review

Darren Johnston's Gone To Chicago: The Big Lift

Read "The Big Lift" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Canada-reared, but calling San Francisco home since 1997, trumpeter and composer Darren Johnston delves into the Chicago's avant, modern-jazz establishment and kicks off a vibrant set, with prominent constituents of The Windy City's fertile soundscape. With The Big Lift, the trumpeter's ascending status within the outer reaches of jazz attains another hierarchical level. Peppered by an undulating groove-quotient, the ensemble combines a frothy and infectious mode of attack by incorporating the blues, mainstream jazz, and avant-garde musings with ...

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Website

All About Jazz Top 10 Songs: March 2022

All About Jazz Top 10 Songs: March 2022

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz features a free song every day spanning all genres of jazz, and of the tracks featured in March, these ten represent our reader's favorites as indicated by total listens. Musicians and record labels can submit full length MP3s for consideration here. Enjoy! Top Tracks Rio Crystal Paul Colombo From: Rio Crystal 04:37 Gray Skies Jim Knapp From: It's Not Business, It's Personal 07:10 From the ...

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Recording

Bay Area Meets Chicago For A New Quartet CD Release With Aaron Bennett, Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa And Frank Rosaly - "Shipwreck 4"

Bay Area Meets Chicago For A New Quartet CD Release With Aaron Bennett, Darren Johnston, Lisa Mezzacappa And Frank Rosaly - "Shipwreck 4"

Source: NoBusiness Records

Shipwreck 4 celebrates the first quartet meeting of jny: San Francisco Bay Area improvisers Darren Johnston, Aaron Bennett and Lisa Mezzacappa with jny: Chicago drummer Frank Rosaly. Johnston, a major figure in the Bay Area music scene, has nonetheless retained close ties to Chicago’s jazz community, and made the introductions here—the group assembled to play a set at a San Francisco Monday night music series, and decided right afterwards to book a recording session that weekend. Fueled by the combination ...

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Recording

Darren Johnston's Gone to Chicago - The Big Lift (2011)

Darren Johnston's Gone to Chicago - The Big Lift (2011)

Source: Something Else!

As I write this, the power fails at San Francisco's Candlestick Park just prior to kickoff of the Niners/Steelers Monday night football game. But as I am also listening to Frisco-based trumpeter Darren Johnston, I'm hearing lights-out music. Canadian-born Johnston found fertile musical ground in the Bay Area, but trips out to gigs in Chicago engendered a deep bonding with the improvised scene there, culminating in a recording session with some of Chicago brightest young players in that scene. The ...

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Recording

Darren Johnston's Gone to Chicago, "The Big Lift"

Darren Johnston's Gone to Chicago, "The Big Lift"

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

Yesterday, Darren Johnston with the Nice Guy Trio.... Today, Darren Johnston with Chicago guys. Darren Johnston's The Big Lift (PFR Porto Franco 031) came out late this past summer (2011) and it's worth tracking down. A great lineup doing some very good music....It's Darren on trumpet, Jeb Bishop on trombone, Jason Adasiewicz, vibes, Nate McBride, bass, and Frank Rosaly, drums. In other words, a kind of all-star Chicago lineup. The group goes through its paces with Ornette's “Love Call," Duke's ...

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Recording

Porto Franco Records to Release "Here Comes the Nice Guy Trio" - The CD Debut by Trumpeter Darren Johnston's New Band - Nov. 17

Porto Franco Records to Release "Here Comes the Nice Guy Trio" - The CD Debut by Trumpeter Darren Johnston's New Band - Nov. 17

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Since his arrival in San Francisco in 1997, Ontario-born trumpeter Darren Johnston has become a vital part of the city’s diverse musical landscape—as composer, bandleader, and trumpeter. Johnston has collaborated with the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Myra Melford, and Marcus Shelby; recorded under his own name and with the United Brassworkers Front; and been named one of Down Beat’s “25 Trumpeters of the Future.” Johnston’s newest ensemble, the Nice Guy Trio, was formed nearly two years ago with accordionist/composer Rob Reich ...

“Johnston explores the limits of his instrument with a hankering for originality…running away and never looking back.” – San Francisco Bay Guardian, “Pick of the Week,”

“fantastic…with a big bell tone and a tart phrasing style that really cuts through.” – Signal to Noise #48.

“a resourceful improviser who writes vivid, episodic themes.” – Downbeat Magazine, “25 Trumpeters for the Future.”

“Someone to watch, on trumpet of course, but as a composer and bandleader as well.” – John Corbett, Downbeat Magazine

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Life in Time

Origin Records
2022

buy

Songs From The Urban...

Gold Lion Arts
2021

buy

Shipwreck 4

NoBusiness Records
2016

buy

The Big Lift

Self Produced
2012

buy

The Big Lift

Porto Franco Records
2011

buy

Little Gold Fish

From: Life in Time
By Darren Johnston

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