David Lasocki

Johnny V in Color David Lasocki

The drummer (and cymbalist) John Vidacovich, familiarly known as Johnny V, the winner of a lifetime achievement award from OffBeat magazine, has made an enormous impact on the music of his native New Orleans over the last fifty-plus years. Whether as a founding member of Astral Project, the leader of his own jazz or funk groups, or a sideman in numerous styles of popular music, Johnny has followed intensely in the distinguished tradition of Big Easy percussionists. And like other great performers, he has developed his own, inimitable style within the tradition. Although Johnny has been interviewed by the press for decades, nothing like a full-length study of his life and work has ever been made. The present book fills that void with biography, photographs, commentary on his recordings, improvisations on his teaching, and a visit to his poetry and comedy, not to mention a detailed discography and bibliography.