David Earle Johnson, a percussionist, appeared on several albums of jazz musicians in the seventies. He then released a few of his own albums during the late seventies. Many albums featured him: Clive Stevens’ Voyage to Uranus (1974) and Billy Cobham’s Total Eclipse (1974); Jan Hammer’s The First Seven Days (1975); Leny White’s Big City (1977); Jaroslav Jakubovic’s Moogy II (1977); Jaroslav Jakubovic’s checkin’ in, Mark Moogy Klingman’s Moogy II (1977); Josh White Jr.’s self titled album (1978); Johnson’s solo album, Time Is Free, was released in 1978 by Vanguard. However, his relationship with Vanguard was short-lived and Johnson began recording albums for other labels during the years that followed his 1983 album, The Midweek Blues. Jan Hammer, John Abercrombie and Jeremy Steig were all involved in the production of most of these albums. He also performed with Allen Sloan and Dan Wall. David opposed the use of “sampled sound”, as Hammer used samples from David’s rare Nigerian log drums without David’s consent on the Miami Vice soundtrack. David lost the lawsuit. [citation needed] David Earle Johnson died from cancer in 1998. from http://en.wikipedia.org
