Celebrating the Legacy of Plas Johnson: A Jazz Icon
- Bill Milkowski
- Jul 25
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 4
Known for his robust-toned tenor sax work on "The Pink Panther Theme," Plas played on countless recordings as a member of The Wrecking Crew
I got the word last week that Plas had passed, just six days short of his 95th birthday. This news hit me hard. It immediately had me reflecting back on a phone call we had 25 years earlier. I had been recruited by Bob Porter, a longtime DJ at radio station WBGO in Newark, New Jersey. He was also the host of the syndicated “Portraits in Blue” show, which I listened to religiously since its inception in 1981. Bob asked me to write liner notes for a record he was producing for the Milestone label. This was a two-tenor affair, in the tradition of classic tough tenor battles like Wardell Gray & Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt & Gene Ammons, and Johnny Griffin & Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. Plas was paired with his elder, Red Holloway, who was four years his senior. Organist Gene Ludwig, guitarist Melvin Sparks, and drummer Kenny Washington provided the fuel for this potent session.
Porter’s theme song for his “Portraits in Blue” show was Jimmy Forrest’s slow, seductive “Bolo Blues” from his 1961 Prestige recording Out of the Forrest. Bob was a huge fan of that bold-toned tenor tradition. In producing Keep That Groove Going!, he aimed to show that the age-old tenor battle tradition was alive and well in the hands of seasoned veterans like Johnson and Holloway. As he put it to me then, “The idea was to make a record with two guys who really know this tenor tradition and still know how to do it. And these are guys who learned it firsthand. They didn’t learn it from any music school. You don’t need two kids out of Juilliard or Berklee to show you what a tenor battle is all about.” Indeed, Keep That Groove Going! was Porter’s love letter to that grand tradition.
The Spirit of Tenor Battles
As Holloway said of that session: “We’re not the real hip players like all the youngsters of today, so I thought we might be out of step with what’s happening. But going into the session, we decided, ‘Well, let’s try and do something like the old tenor battles that they used to have.’ I guess we’re just two old-fashioned dudes who play old-time.” Amen to that!
While both Johnson and Holloway were hugely influenced by elders like Illinois Jacquet, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, and Lester Young, they also fell under the sway of the great blues saxophone players of their youth. Plas once said, “Louis Jordan was one of my idols when I was 13, 14, along with Eddie “Cleanhead” Vison and the Buddy Johnson Orchestra. We got to hear these people live a fair amount because their records sold well in New Orleans, and they were always in town to promote there.”
Early Life and Musical Journey
Plas Johnson was born in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, west of New Orleans, on July 21, 1931. He was the middle child in a musical family. As a teenager, he performed in a little-known bebop underground that existed in the Crescent City. This underground scene included pianist Ellis Marsalis, saxophonist Harold Battiste, and drummer Ed Blackwell. In 1951, Plas joined the touring band of popular R&B singer and pianist Charles Brown, who had hit singles with “Driftin’ Blues” in 1945 and “Merry Christmas Baby” in 1947.
Drafted into the Army later that year, he spent three years in the service. After his time in the military, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1954. There, he quickly established himself on the West Coast recording scene. Plas eventually became a mainstay of The Wrecking Crew, a loose amalgam of session musicians. This talented group included bassist Carol Kaye, guitarists Tommy Tedesco, Barney Kessel, and Glen Campbell, saxophonist Steve Douglas, drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, and keyboardists Mac Rebbenack and Leon Russell, among others. Together, they provided backing on recordings by such artists as Jan & Dean, Sonny & Cher, The Mamas and The Papas, Simon & Garfunkel, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, The Beach Boys, The Monkees, The Righteous Brothers, The Byrds, The Carpenters, The Fifth Dimension, Ike & Tina Turner, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, and many, many more.
Plas also played on countless movie sessions, perhaps most famously on Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther Theme” from the 1963 Blake Edwards movie starring Peter Sellers. He later played that familiar theme song on the 2006 remake of The Pink Panther starring Steve Martin.
Plas had earlier played on another Mancini theme song for the 1958 TV show, Peter Gunn. That same year, he played the piccolo solo on Bobby Day's 1958 hit single, "Rockin' Robin."
A Lasting Impact
Plas later played in the horn section for the soundtrack to the 1972 movie, Lady Sings the Blues, starring Diana Ross.
Johnson spent 15 years in the band of the TV talk-show host Merv Griffin. He was a member of the Frankie Capp-Nat Pierce Juggernaut big band and toured in 1990 with the Gene Harris Superband. Even later in life, he maintained an active connection to music, performing and preserving his warm, full tone into his 90s. R.I.P., Plas!
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