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  Official Website of Howard Johnson and Gravity

Testimony Reviews

For decades, Howard Johnson has played the tuba with the kind of agility and treble-strafing power seldom associated with the low-register ax. Testimony documents a 75-year-old Johnson's continuing vitality as a player, and offers yet another testament to his instrument's viability in modern jazz.   ​-Philip Booth, Jazz Times

Johnson is the King of Jazz Tuba  -Columbia Daily Tribune

It’s unexpectedly pleasurable listening to Tubas play Straight-Ahead jazz with such energy and precision.  -Dee Dee McNeil, Musical Memoirs

Johnson has made the tuba a totally convincing lead instrument, less like an adipose trombone and more a powerful voice in its own right.   -Brian Morton, Jazz Journal

This blending of measured ego, tubas off-the-leash and a varied repertoire delivers an album of many facets, most of them highly satisfying to all low-brass aficionados.   -Martin Longley, DownBeat Magazine

Those who see the tuba as a sluggish, unwieldy instrument capable only of rounding out a musical composition in the lower register may have to rethink that appraisal after listening to Testimony, in which multi-instrumentalist and tuba master Howard Johnson ushers no less than half a dozen tubas and rhythm through their paces in a session that is anything but lethargic. -Jack Bowers, AllAboutJazz.com

...In that respect Johnson must be regarded as a genius who has done for his instrument what men like Jimmy Blanton and Charles Mingus, or Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols, or Max Roach and Elvin Jones have done for their respective instruments. That is to say, Howard Johnson has completely re-defined how the instrument might be played by extending its growling sonic range to include the proverbial bluesy wail in much the same way that Bill Watrous and Albert Mangelsdorff did for the trombone. - Raul da Gama, Jazz Da Gama

Howard proves by this that the tuba can handle more than we are accustomed to think.  -Patrick Van De Wiele, Keys and Chords

[Translated] "Testimony" is revealed as a very solid modern jazz album, typical of the 60's and timeless. As they say in the gastronomic guides : deserves the detour. -Francois Beccquart, Music In Belgium

​With its vibrant spirit and swing, Testimony makes a strong case for repeated listening.  ​- Steven Cerra, Jazzed Magazine

Howard Johnson is anchored in modern jazz and the mainstream. Outstanding performances on the album are commonplace.  -Patrick Spanko, SK Jazz

Man was not made for this much bliss...The level of electricity and spontaneity between the players is as contagious as a benevolent virus, and the spaces captured in the recording are tangibly and audibly three-dimensional. Testimony revivifies long-past days when all the jazz giants were in a ferment and created worlds of wonder. The estimable Mr. Johnson was there, he's still with us, and he's never for a second backed off a micron from a uniquely consummate artistry imbued with glowing spirit.....and baaaaaad-ass chops!  -Mark S. Tucker

...Johnson and the gang show that with real musos, age ain't nothing but a number as they lead the way to tomorrow with more vigor that cats half his age. Jazz and soul shown at the top of their games... - Chris Spector, Midwest Records

Howard plays jazz tuba – &, in fact, he doesn’t just “play it”… he truly is, as the promo sheets say, the “King”… I can guarantee you that your ears will be jumpin’ right along with every beat as you listen to the sheer joy Howard projects with his tuba.  -Dick Metcalf, Contemporary Fusion Reviews

“Testimony” is another testament to the tuba’s viability as a jazz instrument, and to the 75-year-old Johnson’s continuing vitality as a player. He’s again backed by his subsonic-toned Gravity, a group which, on some tracks, has the leader joined by as many as a half-dozen other tuba players.  -Philip Booth, JazzLands

Big, lush, and full of soul – rich as taffy and a taste just makes you want more!  -Grady Harp, Top 100 Amazon Reviewer

Very exotic Jazz is waiting for you in this album. ​ - Leonid Auskern, Jazz Quad

On Testimony, Gravity's first release in 20 years, Johnson and his "choir" of tubists each play in different pitches. The album's finest example of that occurs on the opening bars of Evolution, which feature a dense throng of horns intertwining to project a warm, unifying drone. The nine-minute song...represents something of the consummate Gravity track: It's uplifting, tight and includes more than one killer drum solo from Buddy Williams.  -Patrick Flanary, JAZZIZ Magazine

Gravity plays music that both moves one with its melodicism as much as the unique instrumental harmonies fashioned by its leader. It has been nearly two decades since I saw them, and another decade since I saw them with Taj Mahal's Tuba Band but like a previous recording by them I have, the music here surprises and consistently delights the listener.   -Ron W., In A Blue Mood

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