Sy Johnson

{{Short description|American jazz arranger and pianist (1930–2022)}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Sy Johnson

| birth_name = Sivert Bertil Johnson Jr.

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|4|15}}

| birth_place = New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|7|26|1930|4|15}}

| death_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

| genre = Jazz

| spouse = {{marriage|Lois Mirviss
|1975}}

| occupations = Musician, photographer, writer, and educator

| instruments = Piano, voice, composer, arranger

| past_member_of = Charles Mingus Lee Konitz Quincy Jones Joe Williams Elvis Costello|

}}

Sivert Bertil Johnson Jr. (April 15, 1930 – July 26, 2022) was an American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist who worked with Charles Mingus in the 1960s and 1970s.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I5wrGL-a-Q8C&dq=%22sy+johnson%22+jazz&pg=PR99-IA32|title=Under the Eagle: A Tale of Military Adventure and Reckless Heroism with the Roman Legions|first=Simon|last=Scarrow|date=5 October 2001|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=9780312278700|access-date=18 September 2021|via=Google Books}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JtEKSpyt2SUC&dq=%22sy+johnson%22+jazz&pg=PA453|title=Visions of Jazz: The First Century|first=Gary|last=Giddins|date=22 October 1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-987953-3|access-date=18 September 2021|via=Google Books}} He also worked with the Lee Konitz Nonet,{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_S0EAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22sy+johnson%22&pg=PA130|title=Texas Monthly|first=Emmis|last=Communications|date=18 January 1979|publisher=Emmis Communications|access-date=18 September 2021|via=Google Books}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pc4CsgVHLw0C&dq=%22sy+johnson%22+jazz&pg=PA88|title=Lee Konitz: Conversations on the Improviser's Art|first1=Andy|last1=Hamilton|first2=Lee|last2=Konitz|date=8 August 2007|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0472032174|access-date=18 September 2021|via=Google Books}} among others. His work with Mingus is his best-known.

Life and career

Johnson was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on April 15, 1930.{{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|page=1303}} He first performed with Charles Mingus in 1960 at the Showplace, a jazz club on West 4th St., in the band that included Booker Ervin on tenor, Ted Curson on trumpet, Dannie Richmond on drums, and Mingus on bass, and on his first night with Mingus, Eric Dolphy performed on alto, bass clarinet and flute. Johnson agreed to sit in with the band for two weeks, with the understanding that he would then be put on the payroll; at the end of the two weeks, he came into work and found himself replaced by Yusef Lateef, the multi-instrumentalist. "[Mingus] made as though he was going to walk right by me," Johnson later recalled, "and then he said to me, 'If it was up to you, and you had a choice between hiring Yusef Lateef and you, who would you hire?' And then he walked out, he figured there wasn't any answer for that. And he was quite right, as a matter of fact."Priestley, Brian. Mingus: A Critical Biography, Da Capo Press (1984) {{ISBN|0-306-80217-1}}

In 1971, eleven years later, Mingus climbed the stairs to Emile Charlap's copying office, home to many great arrangers, and before he left, he gave Johnson Let My Children Hear Music to arrange, which featured two Mingus pieces, "The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife (Are Some Jiveass Slippers)" and "Don't Be Afraid, the Clown's Afraid Too". The album's emergence was heralded with a live concert, Mingus And Friends At Philharmonic Hall, also arranged by Johnson and released as an album. Johnson continued to work with Mingus until his death from Lou Gehrig's disease in 1979. Mingus recorded two of Johnson's compositions, "Wee" and "For Harry Carney", and nominated Johnson for a Guggenheim Award following his own in jazz composition. Johnson continued to work with Sue Mingus arranging charts for all the Mingus repertory ensembles—Mingus Big Band, Mingus Orchestra and Mingus Dynasty. His other collaborations in the music world have been with Joe Williams, Frank Sinatra, Wes Montgomery, Roy Eldridge, Ben Webster, Quincy Jones, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Mel Tormé, Terry Gibbs, and Sarah Vaughan among others. He has also worked on Broadway and in films such as The Cotton Club (1984).

In 1975, Johnson married Lois Mirviss, an interior designer and creative director of Mirviss Design Associates, in New York City. They lived together on the Upper East Side of Manhattan until Johnson's death in 2022. They are remembered by their friends, family, and neighbors as having had "one of the great loves." Johnson was also known as a jazz photographer, writer, pianist, singer, and teacher.

He died from complications of COVID-19 in New York City, on July 26, 2022, at the age of 92.{{cite web|title=Sy Johnson, Arranger Who Worked Closely With Mingus, Dies at 92|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/arts/music/sy-johnson-dead.html|last=Risen|first=Clay|work=The New York Times|date=August 26, 2022|access-date=August 26, 2022}}