Few have been blessed with the ability to weave between Jazz, Hip-Hop, r&b, pop, rock, however Keyboardist/ Producer/ Arranger/ Engineer Dennis Johnson has achieved the type of respect earned to work with rising pop stars such as Singer/Songwriter Toby Lightman, as well as established acts like Celine Dion, Anastasia, Avril Lavigne to the likes of Freddie Jackson, Phil Perry, Marion Meadows, Will Downing, and Roy Ayers.
I started playing drums in the 4th Grade for about 10 years when I found out that dj'ing became my love says the Yonkers, N.Y. native. DJ'ing was a popularity thing and I thought I was pretty hot. There would be numerous local dj contests where people would battle for each others equipment. I would accept any challenge and needless to say, I still have the equipment, he laughs...
In 1986, Sunny View Records signed my rap group i was in called the Vicious Rumor Club. We did a spin-off from the Timex Social Clubs mega hit "Rumors". Our version was called "Yeah Yeah that's it" which made a modest buzz around the nation.I was 18 years old and this was the very first time i was ever in a recording studio!!
During the whole DJ-Drum craze, I always had a natural knack for playing keyboards. Sometime in the 80s, I bought my first keyboard and drum machine. It was the beginning of me learning production techniques in the studio. Then I began to dance between Dj'ing for a living and getting my record producing/engineering chops together. I finally hung up my turntables in 1991 after about 10 years of spinning.After building up a room full of studio gear, I realized I had somewhere along the line developed into an engineer/producer.
Johnson met Bob Baldwin in 1992 through a mutual friend. I was blown away by the feel of this guy, says Baldwin. Im looking for a drum beat to fill in this song, so he comes over with just one disc, but it was always the right beat, laughs Baldwin. He was my hero! They have been working ever since.
When Baldwin began to work on music in NY again, he teamed up with Johnson where he proceeded to co-write,co-produce and Engineer his last 5 CDs, including BobBaldwin.com, Standing Tall, The American Spirit Brazil Chill, and his latest All in a days work which made its debut at ..10 on the Billboard charts.
Some of Johnson's production and writing credits include Phil Perry's "Too Late" on Baldwins latest as well Bob Baldwin's remake of the Jackson 5 classic" I Wanna Be Where You Are". His keyboard and drum programming appears on Celine Dions "Treat Her Like a lady" which appeared on her album entitled "Let's talk about love" (Sony Music), Avril Lavigne's "Nobody's fool"which appeared on her debut album "Let Go"(Arista Records) and Singer/Songwriter Toby Lightmans debut CD "Little things" with the hit single "Real love"(Lava/Atlantic) which was a remake of the Mary j Blige 1993 classic. Johnson also co-wrote and co-produced Freddie Jackson's hit single "Natural thing" which appeared on his album entitled "It's your move" (Martlandt Entertainment).
