Lucien Johnson

Lucien Johnson is a New Zealand saxophonist, composer and band leader from Wellington. He studied jazz at the New Zealand School Of Music, and earned his Master's degree in composition from Victoria University Of Wellington, studying under John Psathas. In 2015, as a recipient of Victoria University's Doctoral Scholarship, Johnson started working on his Ph.D. at NZSM, focusing on Ethiopian jazz of the 1960–70s and 70s and the notion of hybridity among contemporary composers and musicians in engaging with music from other cultures. Lucien combines his doctorate research with duties of an artist teacher at the New Zealand School of Music, reading courses on jazz saxophone and improvisation. Johnson has been writing solo music for piano, orchestral and chamber works, as well as making experimental and improvised music with some of New Zealand's and European leading players, and composing for film, television, dance, theatre and installations. Inspired by Lucien Johnson's cabaret show The Night's Plutonian Shore, famous New Zealand director Geoff Murphy made a film Tales of Mystery and Imagination (2009), commissioning the composer to write a soundtrack. From 2003 to 2009, Lucien Johnson lived in Paris, where he formed a trio with US free jazz veteran Alan Silva on bass and Makoto Sato on drums. His composition To the Sea for piano was premiered by Jeffrey Grice at Salle Gaveau in Paris, and eventually performed on tour across Europe and New Zealand. Johnson toured India with a circus ensemble Clowns Sans Frontières. After returning to New Zealand in 2009, Johnson organized a few projects, such as an Afrofuturist ensemble Shogun Orchestra, and The Troubles, which released an album on Rattle Records and headlined the 2014 Edinburgh Jazz Festival. For four years, Lucien Johnson had been touring extensively with a popular reggae band The Black Seeds. He participated in three world tours with them, and gave over 200 concerts in the USA, Canada, Europe and across Australasia, including appearances at major European festivals: Rock En Seine, Lowlands (3), and Sziget Festival. Some of Johnson's recent projects include an acoustic jazz sextet Lucien Johnson + 5, which is planning to release their debut album on Japanese label Wonderful Noise Productions in 2017. Lucien Johnson is one of the co-founders of Economy Records (2), and had been collaborating with many bands on the label, including Lord Echo (touring Japan and China together), and The Yoots. As a session musician, Johnson had played and recorded with Hollie Smith, Jonathan Crayford, Barre Phillips, Lol Coxhill, Damo Suzuki, Alda Rezende, and The Phoenix Foundation.