With an affinity for music that defies easy categorization, Canada-born, Bay Area-based trumpeter/composer Darren Johnston works within jazz, purely improvised music, music of the Balkans, Jamaica (as a regular member of Groundation), contemporary classical, and more.
He has worked with a broad and diverse collection of artists such as ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Marshal Allen, Ches Smith, Dayna Stephens, Marcus Shelby, Carmen Staaf, Michael Formanek, Anais Mitchell, Michael Attias, Slavic Soul Party!, Myra Melford, Fred Frith, Allison Miller, Pete Escovedo, Buddy Miles, SF Sound Ensemble, Drive By Truckers, and many more.
As a bandleader, past projects include The United Brassworkers Front (which in recent years has become once again occasionally active), Third Impulse, The Nice Guy Trio, The Darren Johnston Quintet featuring Ben Goldberg and Sheldon Brown, The Pipes, Broken Shadows Family Band, Life In Time, featuring Geof Bradfield, Clark Sommers, and Dana Hall, Breathing Room, featuring Carmen Staaf, and Michael Formanek, and the NYC-based Wild Awake quintet, featuring Dayna Stephens, Jacob Sacks, Sean Conly, and Ches Smith.
As a composer, he has written for ensembles ranging from small jazz groups to big bands, brass bands, string quartets, rock bands, and countless combinations thereof, including a large, multi-generational choral project, the Trans-Global People’s Chorus, commissioned by the Yerba Buena Garden Festival to focus on and celebrate immigrant stories. He has been commissioned to write for dance, dance film, theater, video games (Simms 2), and other presenting organizations such as San Francisco’s De Young Museum and Intersection For The Arts.
Johnston has toured the USA, Canada, and around the world, including at festivals such as the Monterey Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, South By South-West, Music Unlimited, Rottotam Sunsplash, and others.
He has received funding for touring, recording, and/or composing from the Canada Council for the Arts, The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Creative Capital, Gerbode Foundation, and San Francisco Friends Of Chamber Music (now InterMusic).
As an educator, Johnston has taught at Stanford Jazz Workshop’s summer program and throughout the year in their “Giant Steps” program, Jazz Camp West, The Jazzschool, and as an adjunct at UC Berkeley. As a guest lecturer, he has been invited to present master classes on free improvisation, holistic approaches to music theory and practice, and an introduction to the music of the Balkans at institutions such as Sonoma State University, Cal Arts, and others.
Photo by Julie Caine
Biography
Press
“Someone to watch, on trumpet, of course, but as a composer and bandleader as well.”
– John Corbett, Downbeat Magazine
“Johnston explores the limits of his instrument with a hankering for originality…running away and never looking back.”
– San Francisco Bay Guardian, “Pick of the Week”
“fantastic…with a big bell tone and a tart phrasing style that really cuts through.”
– Signal to Noise #48
“a resourceful improviser who writes vivid, episodic themes.”
– Downbeat Magazine, “25 Trumpeters for the Future”