He is trombonist, songwriter, composer and producer nicknamed “Crimson Slide” born in Dublin, Georgia, and growing up in North Carolina and the Philippines. When he was a fifth grade student his family moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and he took his studies for his music degree at the University of Alabama.
For a 10-month period after graduation he was a member of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra but he left to get his Master of Music degree in jazz performance at the Eastman School of Music. Once he had gained his degree he became a member of Woody Herman’s Young Thundering Herd in the latter half of the 1970s and toured nationally and internationally for the next two and a half to three years before returning to Tuscaloosa for a break.
This would be a turning point as he decided to take the plunge and move to New York City where he started performing with The Nuff Brothers and, with them, also became a member of the Blues Brothers Band in the first years of the 1990s, appearing in the movie Blues Brothers 2000. It was with them that he was first called “Crimson Slide” by Alan Rubin, probably because of the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide.
Working with many artists such as David Byrne, Dr. John, Duke Ellington, Donald Fagen, Marianne Faithfull, Aretha Franklin, David Grusin, The Manhattan Transfer, Anne Murray Aaron Neville and Steve Tyrell, he has appeared on a vast number of recordings with a few of them being albums that include Blues Brothers & Friends: Live from the House of Blues by The Blues Brothers, Off To See The Lizard by Jimmy Buffett, So Close by Dina Carroll, Whispers and Promises by Earl Klugh, Am I Not Your Girl? By Sinead O’Connor, Contribution by Mica Paris and the stage and movie soundtracks of A Chorus Line, Family Thing, Hairspray, Mambo Kings andShaft.
Moving into the world of television and movies he has been a soloist in films such as Third Degree Burn and got his name known as a respected television composer with an Emmy Award nomination five years running from 2001 to 2005 for music for the CBS series The Guiding Light.
He currently resides in New York City and continues his work in composition, production and as a “first call” trombonist in the recording studio.
Here he is on trombone with Woody Herman & His Thunderin Herd performing “Fanfare for the Common Man”. He is the trombonist in the middle with short dark hair…
Sources:
- http://www.crimsonslide.com/about.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_Johnson
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0424607/awards
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0424607/
- http://www.buffettnews.com/resources/coralreeferband/?bid=154
- http://www.writerforhire.com/work2.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off_to_See_the_Lizard
- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0jfqxq95ldte~T4
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/400677-Birch-Johnson