The history of jazz is filled with musicians who died prematurely, disappeared, or stepped away from the scene for various reasons. Into this last category falls Alphonso Johnson (Philadelphia, 1951), a bassist who rose to prominence in the mid-1970s as a member of Weather Report. Though best known as an electric bassist, Johnson began on the double bass at an early age, encouraged to take up the instrument partly due to his tall stature. He studied at the Philadelphia Music Academy with John Lamb, the double bassist in Duke Ellington’s orchestra from 1964 to 1967. At just seventeen, the precocious talent embarked on his professional career. His first major engagement came in 1972 with Woody Herman’s Orchestra, with whom he recorded The Raven Speaks (Fantasy). The following year he appeared on Land of Make Believe (Mercury) with trumpeter Chuck Mangione. But his big break arrived in 1974, when Joe Zawinul […]