| Oct. 9, 2004, 7:23PM
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Listen to sax riffs on TV, visit clubs where jazzmen play, or just listen
to a sermon by the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell. Eventually you'll hear it:
the echo of an education by legendary band teacher Conrad Johnson, 88.
A revered saxophonist who spent 50 years playing big band jazz around
the world, Johnson is perhaps even better known for the thousands of high
school students he trained. Generations of Houston musicians, educators and grateful alumni know
his name — and yet Johnson merits more. In the next few years, a
new campus for the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts will
offer a fine chance to honor this Houston hero. Still extraordinarily vital in his ninth decade, Johnson has spent a
lifetime showing that learning music prepares young people for successful
lives. Johnson began playing alto sax as a student at Yates High School
in the 1930s. Almost immediately, he began playing in bands. After four
years in college, where he graduated with music and English degrees, Johnson
added teaching to his repertoire. In the mid-1940s he became band instructor
at Yates. In 1958 he went on to teach band at Kashmere High School. In
his 20 years there, Johnson burnished Kashmere's band into a world-traveling
program that won first prize in 42 out of 46 international contests, recorded
eight albums and launched dozens of professional careers. Johnson's teaching philosophy was curiously prescient. "He always
treated us with the idea that we could perform as well as professional
musicians," explained Charles Wilson, a Johnson alumnus and spokesman
for Johnson's nonprofit foundation for arts education. "The expectations
were, the sky's the limit. As a result of his expectations, our performances
went up." Johnson could be stern when needed, but he burned with enthusiasm for
his subject and students. Today, parishioners can spot his influence in
the preaching style of alumnus Caldwell; jazz fans trace his touch in
the sound of protege Grover Washington Jr. Countless nonmusicians also show Johnson's training, in the discipline,
math skills and standard of excellence they learned alongside music. Since Johnson launched Kashmere's ambitious band program, an entire school has evolved from the same prototype: Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Though Johnson didn't teach there, it's based on his same professional expectations for young people. And it has prospered. The school boasts distinguished alumni including the creators of the Infernal Bridegroom theater company; it's also grown to the point that it must relocate in 2006. Today, the new site at Taft and West Gray is only raw earth. When it finally is groomed, built and polished, however, the last flourish should be a new name: Conrad Johnson High School for the Performing and Visual Arts |