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Johnny Case

Johnny Case was born into a musical family on August 24, 1947 in Fort Worth, Texas. Both parents (J.C. and Floy Case) had been active in early country music during the 1930's and 1940's. The music activities resumed in the mid-1950's in Paris, Texas where Johnny and his older brother Jerry Case were child performers on regional country music shows. An intense interest in R&B led to Johnny's obsession with modern jazz while in his early teens. This is when Johnny Case began to teach himself to play piano. Jerry was already a guitarist in a local dance band and soon had his younger brother playing professionally. By 1964, the Cases had moved to Dallas where Johnny found work in honky tonks while dreaming of the time when he would be ready to play the music he loved: modern jazz. After moving to Fort Worth, his first trio gigs were in 1966 and this was followed by several years paying dues in society bands. In 1980 Johnny began his first six-night-a-week jazz gig, where he met Kitty Keever who would become his wife. Since that time Johnny Case has earned his living playing modern jazz in Fort Worth, most notably at Sardines Ristorante Italiano, where he provided quality acoustic jazz for 28 years! Johnny has performed in club and concert settings with such established jazz artists as James Clay, Billy Hart, Dewey Redman and David "Fathead" Newman. All the while, Johnny Case has kept ties with western swing musicians whom were among his early mentors. His recordings as sideman on numerous albums of western swing have been highly praised by devotees of this genre. In 2003, Dr. Peggy Brown conducted an Oral History with Johnny. It resulted in a 100-page hardcover book accessible to students and the public alike at the University of North Texas. The jazz recordings of Johnny Case often feature his brother Jerry Case, now an established jazz guitarist on the Los Angeles scene. Other noteworthy projects include the "peace and justice suite" entitled Love's Bitter Rage, issued in 2005 under Johnny's assumed Muslim name Jhon Kahsen as a protest against United States foreign policy. The wide spectrum of Johnny's musical interests can be seen in the many recordings he has issued. These include avant garde jazz, musique concrete, other forms of experimental music alongside the very conventional music of his upbringing and the mainstream jazz that originally inspired Johnny Case to become a musician. Johnny Case is the recipient of the 2020 D'JAM Jazz Legend Award (Artist category) presented by the Dallas Jazz Appreciation Month Committee on December 5, 2020 in a virtual awards ceremony. More info is available from Sammons Center for the Arts and from Johnny's "Jazz Award Acknowledgement" blog : www.johnnycasemusic.com.

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Duke Ellington Orchestra
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