A Los Angeles-based trombonist who graduated from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has taken part in his second Grammy-winning project.
Chris Johnson is one of the brass players on the “Amen” track in Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” album, which won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Country Album on Sunday. Just a day earlier, Johnson reunited with his college band, UAPB’s Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South (M4), at the Honda Battle of the Bands at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, the Los Angeles suburb where Johnson grew up.
“I never imagined in my wildest dreams I would be coming to Inglewood and recruiting students to come to UAPB,” said John Graham, the school’s director of bands who spent part of his early childhood in nearby Altadena, Calif. “The wildest part was recruiting a young man from Inglewood to UAPB. He graduates, becomes a world-class musician, and he goes back to his hometown and be able to get Grammys. It’s humbling. It proves that if you try to live right – not that I’m a perfect individual – and treat kids right, the umbrella of what you do can expand, and now he’s out there helping other kids and he’s living a great life. He’s traveled the world.”
Johnson, who could not be reached for this article, attended UAPB on a full scholarship and learned from late trumpeter Clark Terry, according to his Yamaha bio. Johnson graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the university in 2009 and went on to earn a master’s degree in jazz studies from Northern Illinois University.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The bio adds that Johnson has performed, recorded and toured with Beyonce, Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Jennifer Hudson and others. He played the horns on two tracks of Beyonce and Jay-Z’s 2018 album “Everything Is Love,” with the married duo credited as The Carters. Johnson co-arranged the first track, “Summer,” and played the horns on “Summer” and “Boss.”
“Everything is Love” won Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 2019 Grammys, meaning a victory for Johnson.
Graham called up his former star trombonist to play a solo on one of M4’s songs, “California Love,” at the Honda Battle of the Bands. The theme for UAPB’s portion of the show was “I Love LA” with an emphasis on love, Graham said.
UAPB visited Inglewood just days after the most recent of the Southern California wildfires were contained. The fire near Altadena destroyed more than 14,000 acres.
“After we got that theme, I started listening to the music, how that last tune was, which is ‘California Love,'” Graham said. “I was listening to the vamp, and I said, ‘This would be great for a soloist right here.'”
Then it dawned on Graham: Call Johnson. The trombonist told his old mentor he would be honored, Graham said.
“Just being able to interact with him and see your students doing well, that’s why we do what we do,” Graham said. “It’s humbling. It’s very humbling.”
Memphis-based rapper GloRilla, also nominated for a Grammy, helped rock the SoFi house as well and was caught on video asking “Isn’t that Pine Bluff?” when she noticed UAPB band players.
It was UAPB’s bands, and Johnson is an award-winning alumnus. “Humble, approachable person and a sponge who soaks up from everyone” is how Graham described Johnson.
“He’s got so much more ahead of him,” Graham remarked. “He’s just scratching the tip of the iceberg.”
Chris Johnson, with trombone, is pictured with UAPB marching band assistant director Danny Evans, director John Graham and assistant director Harold Fooster. (Special to The Commercial/UAPB Marching Musical Machine of the Mid-South)