Wallace Roney

I felt I really need to practice more and to learn more before I go to New York.

It was Wallace Roney who said, Cindy, There's every level of musician in New York.

He said there are amateurs, there are intermediate players, and there are innovators there.

He said, so wherever your level is when you go there, you're going to grow.

So that really helped me grow too.

And then I started getting gigs.

You mentioned Wallace Roney, I believe on one of his first albums.

I don't know if it was the first or second album.

Yeah, did you get to know miles? Well, no, no.

But I talked, you know, I talked a lot with Wallace Roney, late Wallace Roney, who was he was two miles like I was too busy.

Right.

And Wallace, when miles was on his deathbed, he said, You should call miles.

And he put me on this gig with Curtis Fuller.

And I just remember an older Curtis Fuller on this gig and Wallace Roney.

Wallace Roney playing trumpet.

And you know, Wallace Roney could play play and play and play.

I mean, his ideas and his language is just endless.

And I remember him taking this solo.

And it was just an effective way in one course as it was in 10 courses.

I mean, they were very different.

[air whooshing] Cameron Johnson is a Los Angeles-based trumpeter, studio musician, and touring artist whose career spans pop, R&B, jazz, gospel, and orchestral music.

He has performed, recorded, or toured with artists including Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder, Miss Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Pharrell, Usher, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and many more A graduate of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Cameron has also performed with jazz greats, including McCoy Tyner, the Count Basie Orchestra, Natalie Cole, Wallace Roney, and Jon Faddis.

His television credits include The Tonight Show, The Voice, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Ellen, and the BET Awards, and has appeared on Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated recordings.

Cameron is currently performing with Lenny Kravitz and Robin Thicke.

We know how hard it is to do this.

Mm-hmm.

You know? Um, so I was doing the big band thing, and I was, you know, started, um, I had just started working with, uh, Wallace Roney's big band.

And around the time that I had started doing that, I had gotten called to start working with an R&B singer.

Hope everybody's good.

I'm going to start on a fever pitch with this version of Donna Lee from trumpeter Wallace Roney from his song, 1999 album, No Job, Too Big or Small.

It features the tenor saxophone of Gary Thomas, along with Christian McBride at the bass, Cindy Blackman drums, and Donald Brown at the piano on Charlie Parker's Donna Lee.

Thank you.

I think that this, uh, circles back to what you were saying earlier.

Um, I have this half quote fr- from Wallace Roney, who was trumpeter for the Miles Quintet in '91.

Mm-hmm.

And he said, "The meeting of Miles Davis with a prolific composer", and Trane was a good composer too.