Kerry Johnson

In 1973, with a letter of recommendation from the Union president and his teacher, Kerry moved to Santa Barbara, CA, and began working with Dave Davidson, a WWII-era Big Band leader in the USO. Davidson had formed a group of retired studio musicians from LA and was gigging around at the best places in Santa Barbara. It was quite an experience for a young musician, and eventually, Kerry moved to Los Angeles to begin working there.

 

He played with many bands and spent countless hours in the studio recording for numerous clients. He also began working for a video production company as a cameraman and sound mixer. This began his career in Pro Tools and the media production world. He wrote music and worked with music producer Alan Kozlowski, the founder of POP (Pacific Ocean Post), on various projects. In 1985 he worked as part of a film crew on a project that took him to 15 European capitals and cities in 30 days.

In 1987, Kerry moved to Montana for family reasons and began working in the educational media publishing field. In 1989 he joined a group called the Paradise Players which performed “cowboy” music from the Sons of the Pioneers and Riders in the Sky as well as original material. They made two albums which were endorsed by Dale Evans (wife of Roy Rogers) and Patsy Montana. They performed for eight years around Montana at dinner theaters, cowboy poetry gatherings, rodeos, and other events.

In 1997, Kerry moved to Minneapolis, MN, to continue his career in media production. He was hired by the EMC corporation in Saint Paul and began working as a media project manager and recording engineer. He worked with clients such as Pearson Education, Macmillan, Cengage, McDougall-Littel, SRA, and Penguin Random House Audio.

 

After almost 50 years in the media production and music business, Kerry is still making music and media projects with his own businesses, KJ Quartet and KJ Media Productions in Minneapolis.