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Aaron Johnson

Aaron Johnson is a Saxophonist, Clarinetist and Flutist based in New York City where he leads his quartet and freelances as a jazz musician and commercial woodwind doubler.

In addition to leading his own group in nearly every New York jazz establishment, from Smalls to Jazz at Lincoln Center, he has worked with notable jazz musicians such as Jon Batiste, Dick Hyman, Chuck Israels, Ken Peplowski, Connie Crothers, Slide Hampton, John Colianni, Ed Palermo, Pete Barbutti, Joey "G Clef" Cavaseno, Jon-Erik Kellso, Dwayne Clemons, Sacha Perry, Veronica Swift, Benny Benack III, and many more.

As a commercial/classical/woodwind musician, Aaron has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, played in the house band for Bill Irwin’s Old Hats, Toured with 2009 American Idol Winner Lee DeWyze and is a member of the Siletz Bay Festival Orchestra (Oregon) in addition to freelancing with many local/regional symphonies/chamber ensembles in the New York Metro Area. Currently playing lead alto with the John Colianni jazz orchestra, Aaron is also a member of the Ken Peplowski big band and leads his own groups and projects nationally as well as abroad.

In addition to his performing, Aaron Johnson is an in demand scholar and lecturer of Jazz history. He has presented and spoken many times at Jazz at Lincoln Center, conducting pre-concert lectures, moderating panels and presenting listening party lectures. Other schools Aaron has presented at include NYU and the College of William & Mary.

Allen Lowe: A Love Supine: Ascension into the Maelstrom

Read "A Love Supine: Ascension into the Maelstrom" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
October 31, 2021

There is an exhaustive property to the body of Allen Lowe's work. Composer, saxophonist, sporadic guitarist who composes on piano, and the author of several noteworthy music histories, he has released nearly two dozen albums. Lowe is a member of the quartet East Axis with Matthew Shipp, Gerald Cleaver, and Kevin Ray. A Love Supine: Ascension into the Maelstrom is an ambitious double-disc collection recorded in four sessions in 2018. The eighteen tracks were all composed by Lowe. The sessions ...

Album Review

Veronica Swift: This Bitter Earth

Read "This Bitter Earth" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
March 29, 2021

Ad appena 26 anni Veronica Swift firma il suo album più avvincente e maturo, imponendosi come la vocalist stilisticamente più completa emersa nel nuovo millennio. Dotata di un talento prodigioso, s'è imposta nell'affollato panorama odierno delle cantanti per inventiva e virtuosismo, rinnovando l'eredità di grandi interpreti degli anni cinquanta come Anita O'Day e Dinah Washington. Veronica Swift s'esprime con esuberante entusiasmo e profondità interpretativa, sorretta da una naturale capacità di “comunicare" col pubblico, ben oltre il semplice ...

Album Review

Veronica Swift: This Bitter Earth

Read "This Bitter Earth" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
March 1, 2021

Borrowing music from Broadway (Oliver!, South Pacific, Bye Bye Birdie), alt-rock (The Dresden Dolls' “Sing!"), the great American Songbook, ("Getting To Know You"), R&B, and beyond, it takes an artist of sure and rising stature to curate one hell of a coherent protest album. Veronica Swift is that artist and, most declaratively, This Bitter Earth is that album. Since there is not a standard of any bearing that Swift doesn't defy and stamp as her very own, it ...

Album Review

Veronica Swift: This Bitter Earth

Read "This Bitter Earth" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 7, 2021

It seems jazz vocalist Veronica Swift has been in the music business all of her life, and for good reason: There is the well documented fact that she is the daughter of jazz pianist Hod O'Brien and singer Stephanie Nakasian, and she debuted on record at nine years old with Veronica's House of Jazz (SNOB, 2004). Since that time, Swift has recorded in a variety of settings, including on the uniformly excellent The Birdland Big Band Live (CD Baby, 2018), ...

“Aaron Johnson is brilliant. Period. He is brilliant in his playing, in his speech, in his ideas... a true virtuoso.”

— JIMMY HALPERIN, APRIL 2015

“Among the reed players there’s Aaron Johnson, a king of protege of mine... a real head turner.”

— KEN PEPLOWSKI, SOUNDS MAGAZINE 2019 (JAZZ CLUB OF SARASOTA)