You might not recognize him on the street or know his name, but you’ve probably seen him onstage and you’ve most certainly heard him…probably many times.
Vail Johnson is his name, and he’s a bassist. Not just any bassist, mind you, but THE bassist when it comes to studio work, recordings, and live performance. He’s been doing it for over 40 years with some of the top names in music, and he’s returning to Key West’s Red Barn Theatre with a career-ful of behind-the-scenes stories and a great deal of the music he’s had a hand in.
His new show, “Bassically Incorrect” will have a very limited engagement at the Barn Sunday and Monday, February 9 and 10 only. Tickets are available now at keystix.com or by calling 305-296-9911.
“It’s going to be all new material – a lot different from the last show,” Johnson said. “I’ve played with so many people over the years that I couldn’t possibly fit them all in one show. My latest recordings were with Keb’Mo, Taj Mahal, and Lee Greenwood, but I go all the way back to Gil Scott Heron and David Cassidy…from the original beat poet to The Partridge Family!”
Want some other names he’s put the bottom under? How about Kenny G, Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Nicks, George Benson, Michael Bolton, James Ingram, Paula Abdul, MC Hammer, T. Graham Brown, Steve Perry, Patti Austen, Peabo Bryson, Edgar Winter, and Christopher Cross, just to name a very few.
“It just sort of happened,” Johnson said recently. “I was playing in a lounge band back in the late 70’s, and Kenny G’s percussionist sees me, brings Kenny to the gig, and the next thing I know, I’m playing in Kenny G’s band. We go to LA, and Stevie Nicks sees me at a gig, and asks me to do her record. It just snowballed from there.”
It wasn’t all luck, however. Johnson was ready when the door opened. The youngest of seven brothers (one of his older siblings is Key West’s Jeff Johnson), Vail was immersed in all kinds of music through his family – classical, choral, gospel, bluegrass, Dixieland, Top 40. He absorbed it all, mixing in whatever he came across, including jazz, hip-hop, metal rock, and pure improvisation. His virtuosity, passion, and humor were his calling card, and his ability to play virtually any style extremely well sealed the deal.
And all of it is on display in his one-man show – from Kenny G’s, George Benson’s, and Herbie Hancock’s jazz to Steve Perry’s and Stevie Nicks’s rock, to Peabo Bryson’s soul and Keb’Mo’s blues.
“I tell stories about the artists I’ve played and toured with, and then play and sing along with the tracks I’ve done with them or played on tour. I do some of my own stuff too. And what I do is not just ‘play bass’…people are surprised what I can do on a bass in terms of playing music. Look…it’s a guitar. It just happens to be a bass. I can make it sound like a Spanish guitar, or bluesy finger-picking, or monster slapping.”
It doesn’t matter what style of music or what particular artist you like personally – there’s a very good chance Vail Johnson will tell you a story about touring with them, or play something you’ve heard by them in his show. And odds are you’ll say, “Oh, yeah! I know that one! He played bass on that?”
Tickets for “Bassically Incorrect” are available at keystix.com. More information can be had by calling the Red Barn box office at 305-296-9911.
This show is sponsored in part by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.
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