LaMont Johnson

LaMont Johnson (1941-1999) was an American jazz pianist who has played in the hard bop and post-bop genres. He recorded extensively with Jackie McLean in the 1960s, and has also recorded with Ornette Coleman, Kenny Burrell, Bud Shank, Paul Beaver, and Bernie Krause, among others.^[1]

LaMont and his brother Keith established a record company (funded by MBA, a midtown production company) on the Lower East Side in New York City in 1966. It was located on 53 Pitt Street, in a former seltzer factory, and was named Down East Records. It housed offices for Down East records and a small recording studio in the back of the building. The label released an R&B single by Justin entitled "Right Now". This became one of the first R&B records to utilize a fusion of Latin, jazz, and R&B music in commercial music. The same studio was also the site of demo recordings for Cat Mother (a rock group bought by Jimi Hendrix) as well as recording sessions for an Ornette Coleman album.

Many of the jazz musicians from Slugs, a jazz club in the East Village, would use Down East to record demos. In 1967, the Down East roster performed at the bandshell in the East Village's Tompkins Square Park. Down East Records had one record that made it to the airwaves ("Right Now") and it was played on WWRL once every few hours. The label went out of business in 1969. The label's successes included major sales in Africa, and in the Mid-Atlantic region ranging from Washington, DC to Baltimore, MD. The artists performed on television shows such as The Hit Kit and gave radio interviews. Other staff members that worked with LaMont Johnson at Down East were Harry Bass, who had previously worked with Motown; Jimmy Hall, who had worked with and sang with many successful groups in the New York area; and James (Jimmy Mack) McNary who had worked as a musician/writer/promoter with many New York record companies.

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