“For so many years now, the trumpet has been confined to a specific spot in music: jazz. One of the goals I set for myself when I started this album was to destroy those preconceptions. I want to make people see that the trumpet can be more than just something you hear in an elevator or on a record of jazz standards from some new young lion that Wynton Marsalis found. At times, it might go as far as someone wondering whether what they’re hearing is a trumpet at all. But it’s not experimentation just for the sake of it; these are all songs when it comes down to it.” ~Gabriel Johnson

Gabriel Johnson is a trumpet player, composer, and programmer living in Los Angeles, California. Upon graduation from Boston’s prestigious New England Conservatory in 2004, Johnson quickly began working with some of the biggest names in music, including Blood, Sweat & Tears (for whom he was musical director at 24), Gladys Knight, Jill Scott, Sting, Chris Botti, Paula Cole, Burt Bacharach, Lyle Lovett and Keb Mo. After a few years of working as a sideman and developing a reputation for being able to play in just about any style, legendary film director and composer Clint Eastwood called upon Johnson to be the featured trumpet soloist on his 2007 Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award nominated score for Changeling. Eastwood, once a trumpet player himself, has said that Johnson “plays like a singer“ and “has a gorgeous tone.” After the success of the Changeling soundtrack, Eastwood has once again turned to Johnson to be the soloist in his upcoming Nelson Mandela biopic “Invictus”, out in December of 2009.

Johnson has also become the go-to soloist for Grammy-nominated producer and electronic musician Carmen Rizzo (Seal, Coldplay, K.D. Lang). Rizzo says: “Working with Gabriel has been such a treat. He has a way of experimenting with sound that reminds me of Jon Hassell. I had been looking for a new texture to add to my sound, and his trumpet was just what I needed. He’s my new secret weapon!” One review called Johnson’s playing on the recently released,  Rizzoproduced Huun Huur Tu record “the new signature of Rizzo’s sound.” Johnson is now venturing out as a solo artist, currently putting the final touches on his first record. The full breadth of his skill and vision will be on display as he is doing all of the sequencing and playing all of the instruments himself. Johnson is striving to do something unique with the trumpet, building rhythms and atmospheres that cull influences from sources as disparate as post-rock, dubstep, and experimental electronica, culminating in a record that is sure to intrigue and inspire listeners to think differently about the instrument.