Mr. Johnson Signing Off

Dink Johnson was born in New Orleans around 1880, and was the younger brother of Bill Johnson, King Oliver's great bass player. Dink played a swinging, stomping, Jelly-like piano style. He had a repertoire of tunes as unique as his style, containing many tunes of his own and other tunes long forgotten. Dink had a rollicking, contagious sense of humor which comes through on these recordings. The weirdest thing he ever did by far is, "The Pidgeon Walk." at best, the tune was just another dance tune that never got off the ground but at the hands of Dink it becomes a masterpiece of something or another! It is indeed pathetic that Dink could die and leave so little in reserve for those who belatedly came to appreciate his work.