ABOUT
Johnny Griffith is a multi-Juno Award nominated saxophonist, composer and producer who has played and recorded with numerous artists including Don Thompson, Hawksley Workman, Jeremy Pelt, Ernesto Cervini’s Tune Town, Charlie Hunter, The Wailers, Alex Dean, Laila Biali, Al Henderson Quintet, Brandi Disterheft and Terra Hazelton to name a few, and is a member of the popular Canadian funk/hip hop group, the Pocket Dwellers. He has toured extensively across Canada, the United States, and Europe performing at all the major Canadian music festivals as well as several international venues including the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
The Johnny Griffith Quintet is the artist’s first solo venture and launched with “Dance with the Lady” in 2015. Featuring NYC’s Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, the album was the featured release on WBGO Jazz radio New Jersey. Johnny continues with the soon to be released “The Lion, Camel and Child”, again with Pelt, previewing at the TD Toronto Jazz Festival 2018.
"One of the premier jazz players in Canada and the world, playing the instrument with energy and sophistication”
Edward Blanco
All About Jazz
"Griffith plays first from his heart, not his head. The result is – rarity of rarities – an album of original compositions that swings from start to finish."
Tim Wilkins
WBGO Radar
Other Projects
Johnny co-leads the Griffith Hiltz Trio with guitarist Nathan Hiltz arriving on the scene with the 2009 album “Now & Then”, produced by and featuring Toronto jazz legend, Don Thompson. Their debut album was selected by Terry McElligott at Jazz FM 91 as Jazz Album of the Year and was nominated for a Grand Prix du Jazz from the Montreal Jazz festival. Their second more experimental release, “This is What You Get”, was produced by Canadian cult icon Hawksley Workman and sat at #1 on the National Jazz charts for three weeks in 2013.
Currently in production is the GHT’s new album “Atlantean Emerald” based on the greatest movie never made (penned by Johnny and Nathan), complete with a full instrumental arsenal of guitars, bass pedals, MOOG and Prophet synthesizers, saxophones and bass clarinet. Stay tuned…
Most recently Johnny has been composing and performing with his new collective with bassist Artie Roth and drummer Chris Wallace with a focus on the tradition and style of the great trio recordings like Sonny Rollins’ “Way Out West” and “Freedom Suite” or Joe Henderson’s “State of the Tenor”.
In 2015, Johnny created the non-profit independent jazz label G-B Records and has gone on to produce and/or engineer Nathan Hiltz’s “Songs Poetic”, Whitney Ross-Barris “Bright Lunch Trio”, Graeme Stephen’s “Projector Trio”, Adrean Farrugia/Joel Frahm’s “Blued Dharma, and Chris Wallace’s “Many Names”.
Johnny is also an active film and television composer. He has composed the scores for the films Still to Go and The Recipe – both films have appeared in Toronto Film Festival, the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival and the Vancouver International Film Festival. He is also a freelance composer for the Bell/CTV media group.
Born in St. Boniface Manitoba, Johnny has a Bachelor of Music from Humber College, a Master’s Degree in Jazz performance from University of Toronto and for the past ten years has been a member of the Humber Faculty of Music. Johnny Griffith currently lives and performs in Toronto, Canada.