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Johnny Rover grew up in world famous Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He first started playing harmonica at age 15. He made friends with the top Brazilian harp players, including Flavio Guimaraes, Jefferson and Ze da Gaita, learning the basics of the harmonica directly from them. At the age of 17, Johnny played in what was, to date, the biggest blues festival in Brazil's history and featured Buddy Guy as headliner.
When he turned 18, Johnny moved to the U.S. where he was soon discovered by some of the top players on the West Coast blues scene. He soon found himself playing with many of the same musicians whose recordings had influenced him. Los Angeles based vocalist and bandleader Jamie Wood asked Johnny to join her band in 1995, where he remained a featured bandmember until 2005. That partnership resulted in 3 critically acclaimed CD's for the Pacific Blues and Blues Time record labels, plus several tours of the West Coast, South America and Europe.
It wasn't long before he began playing chromatic harmonica coached by his mentor and master of blues and jazz harmonica, the late great William Clarke. The legendary George "Harmonica" Smith, from Muddy Waters Band fame, tutored Clarke and, in the same tradition, Johnny became Clarke's protege until Clarke's untimely death at age 45. Like Clarke, Johnny is fluent in traditional blues harp style as well as the swinging jazz-oriented style that incorporates the melodic and energetic saxophone approach to the harmonica.
His first recording with Jamie Wood, entitled "Flyin' High", was released on Blues Time Records in Brazil, where it was kicked off by a 3 week promotional tour in 2001 which included several Brazilian states, including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Fortaleza. In that same year, Johnny played the 13th annual Battle of the Blues Harps, California's premiere blues harp show; other harp players on this event included Rod Piazza, Sugar Ray Norcia, James Harman, Johnny Dyer and John 'Juke' Logan. This event was right on the heels of his return from the South American tour when Johnny played the 1st International Blues Harmonica Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Since then, Johnny has been asked to return to the annual Battle of the Blues Harps in 2003 and 2005, along with harp masters Paul Oscher, Gary Primich and Mitch Kashmar.
In early 2003, the Pacific Blues record label released "Ain't No Doubt About It", another critically acclaimed recording by the Jamie Wood Band. Their follow up CD, "Hollywood Confidential," was also released on Pacific Blues in May 2005, with Johnny also assuming the role of co-producer. International tours in 2005 included dates in France, Belgium and Brazil.
Johnny is officially sponsored by Hering Harmonicas, who also endorses some of the foremost harmonica players in the world today, such as Rod Piazza, Keb Mo, Peter Madcat and many others. The harmonica models endorsed by Johnny are the "Special 48" chromatics and the "1923 Vintage Harp" diatonics. Other endorsements include amplifiers from Meteoro amps and custom microphones from Thunderharpmics and Diogo Farias.
Currently, Johnny is finishing production on his first solo recording, an all instrumental CD to be released in 2007. The CD will be titled "Loose Screws" and the song selection and instrumentation is quite eclectic. Be on the lookout for lots of swinging chromatic harmonica with greasy Hammond B3 organ trio tunes, latin-flavored percussion filled ensembles, horn-section driven jump shuffles, and a few others surprises. This recording ought to reiterate his ranking among the best of a new generation of blues and jazz performers.
In addition to his instrumental project, Johnny can be occasionally found collaborating with blues legend Johnny Dyer, or in a country blues duo setting with guitarist/vocalist Nathan James.
PHOTOS (click on photo to open at 300dpi for download):
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