Biography

Charles LaVere Johnson, better known as Charlie LaVere (July 18, 1910, Salina, Kansas - April 28, 1983, Ramona, California) was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. Johnson performed most often as a pianist, but also sang and played trumpet, trombone, and alto saxophone. He started his early career working with Wingy Manone and Jack Teagarden (both in 1933), then recorded under his own name (with Jabbo Smith and Zutty Singleton as sidemen) in 1935. Later in the 1930s he worked with Paul Whiteman, Ben Pollack, Hoagy Carmichael, and Connee Boswell, and served as Bing Crosby's accompanist from 1939 to 1947. He played with the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1941 and led his own band after World War II which included, at times, Joe Venuti, Matty Matlock, Nick Fatool, and George Van Eps. He led a band at Disneyland from 1955 to 1959, worked briefly with his own sextet in New York City in 1960, then moved to Las Vegas, where he played solo piano in clubs and also worked with Bob Crosby in 1961-1962. He and Manone played together once more in Vegas in 1963, and soon after this, he played for a time on cruise ships running between California and Australia. From the 1960s onward he ran his own piano repair shop in the San Diego area. LaVere also composed; his tune "Cuban Boogie Woogie" was recorded by Charlie Barnet and Andy Kirk among others.