Eric Johnson was born and raised in Jackson, CA. He started playing the trombone in school in 5th grade. From 7th -12th grade he participated in marching band, concert band and jazz band. He was fortunate to have the same music teacher, Wes Hill, all through school.

In 1978 he was awarded a scholarship from the Jackson Band Boosters to attend UOP Music Camp in Stockton, CA. That very camp is still going strong and in fact Eric's son, John, also a member of The SpeakEazy Jazz Orchestra (SJO), has attended UOP Music Camp for 5 summers and has been on 2 performance trips to Europe with the one of the camp directors that taught Eric during his week at UOP in 1978! In 1982, during Eric's senior year in high school, we was the recipient of the Bank of America Music Award. He attended San Jose State University for 2 yrs, as a trombone major and studied under Professor Szabo. Professor Szabo was a member of the San Jose Symphony. While at San Jose State, Eric performed in the Symphonic band and a trombone quartet.

During the late 80's, Eric played lead trombone in Richards Smith's Big Band and Ted Marr's Band of Gold. Both bands played music of the 30's & 40's. After a 15 year break from music, Eric picked up his trombone again when the music bug bit his son John. He's now back to playing in all his spare time and has recently performed with the Sierra Symphony in Placerville, the Great Mother Lode Brass and Reed Band in Sonora and the High Mountain Brass Quintet.

Eric was more than honored when Steve & Jeff Chambers asked him if he would be interested in playing in a 20's jazz band. The music is scored for only 1 trombone....Steve's words to Eric were "you're it buddy". So now Eric has the distinct joy of sitting next to his son, who plays trumpet in the SJO, all the while helping to foster and feed that very same music bug that bit him some 30+ years ago!

 

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