Biography:

An African-American musician and composer.  Johnson was born in Martinique in the West Indies and moved to Philadelphia around 1809, where he became well-known as the leader of a dance orchestra.  His compositions include cotillions, quadrilles, marches, arrangements of operatic arias, and songs, sentimental and patriotic.  Johnson's Military Ban dof African-American musicians notably played for various military regiments and also supplied the majority share of the music performed during the celebrations of General Lafayette's triumphant return to Philadelphia in 1824.