Johnny Maddox
| Johnny Maddox | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 4, 1927 Gallatin, Tennessee, United States |
| Occupation | Ragtime pianist |
Johnny Maddox (born August 4, 1927 in Gallatin, Tennessee, United States) is an American ragtime pianist, historian, and collector of musical memorabilia.
Maddox's interest in the ragtime era was fueled by his great-aunt Zula Cothron. She had played with an all-girls' orchestra at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and later played in vaudeville. Maddox studied classical music for a total of nineteen years with other teachers, including Margaret Neal and Prudence Simpson Dresser, who had studied in Europe for a short time with Franz Liszt. One of Maddox's teachers of popular music, Lela Donoho, had played for silent movies in his hometown of Gallatin, Tennessee. He played his first public concert when he was five and began his professional career in 1939 playing with a local dance band, the Rhythmasters, led by J. O. "Temp" Templeton.
Around 1946, Maddox started working for his friend Randy Wood at Randy’s Record Shop in Gallatin, where Wood founded Dot Records. Maddox's very first single, "St. Louis Tickle" with "Crazy Bone Rag" on the flip side (recorded May 19, 1950), sold over 22,000 copies in only a few weeks. He became the first successful artist on Dot, and his instant success helped build Dot into one of the most popular labels of the 1950s. Maddox immediately signed with MCA (Music Corporation of America) and began touring nightclubs across the country. In Dallas, Texas, he appeared alongside Sophie Tucker; in Las Vegas, Billy Eckstine and Elvis Presley; in Miami, Florida, Eddy Arnold and the Duke of Paducah; in Detroit, Michigan, Pat Flowers, Dorothy Donegan, and Lawrence Welk. Upon hearing him play in 1952, the "Father of the Blues," W. C. Handy, called Maddox "the white boy with the colored fingers." His first record to sell over a million copies was probably Bob Wills's "San Antonio Rose." Another one of his most popular early records was "In the Mood," and he performed the song on The Pee Wee King Show in February 1953.
...
Wikipedia