Johnny Maddox is one of America’s leading ragtime pianists. Johnny has sold over 11,000,000 records (50 albums and 87 singles) on the Dot and MCA labels. He has 9 gold records and his own star on Hollywood Boulevard.
He began his recording career in 1950 in Nashville when his longtime friend Randy Woods began the world famous Dot records. Johnny was the first artist ever recorded on Dot Records. This first record had "Crazy Bone Rag" on one side and "St. Louis Tickle" on the other. In 5 weeks it sold over 22,000 copies. Dot went on to later handle the Mills Brothers, Bill Vaughn, Pat Boone, Liberace and Eddie Peabody, just to name a few. Dot was later sold to MCA where Johnny continued to record until the seventies.
A ragtime historian whose sheet music collection numbers over 200,000 and who can play thousands of pieces from memory, Maddox easily defines his genre and differentiates it from jazz. “...you play a steady marching bass with your left hand and the right hand works against the left...that’s what ragtime is...and you can rag anything…you can rag a hymn, you can rag a brand new piece of music today as long as you are playing that steady marching bass and the right hand working against the left...you were supposed to play it as it was written...jazz...you could take liberties with the music...that’s absolutely the only difference...and ol’ Sidney Bechet said its (all) ragtime no matter how you look at it.” Things are of course not quite that simple and when asked if he plays it as it is written the answer is a resounding “No!...it has to be me...if I’m trying to play something...it comes across stiff or stilted...I have to express me…”
Selected Discography:
Where the Southern Crosses the Yellow Dog (Crazy Otto Music, 2002)
Cowboys and Indians (Crazy Otto Music, 2002)
Back Home in Tennessee (Crazy Otto Music, 2002)
Collector's Numbered Edition 3CD Set (Crazy Otto Music, 2002)
Dixieland Blues (Dot, 1959)
Ragtime Piano (Dot, 1958)