The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2021 Summer Music Grant Max Johnson who will complete a new project of original compositions of chamber music. The works created between 2016-2021 will feature a quintet of fabulous performers: Lauren Cauley, Carrie Frey, Maria Hadge, Lucy Hatem, and Fifi Zhang.

This will be the first album to feature the chamber music of Max Johnson, and will be recorded at The Bunker in Brooklyn, NY in the fall of 2021, set for a release in the Spring/Summer of 2022.

Described as “an intrepid composer, architect of sound and beast of the bass...” (Brad Cohan, NYC Jazz Record) composer, bassist, and improviser Max Johnson creates complex worlds of sound, challenging his listeners to engage deeply and be rewarded with an experience always crafted with love, care, and clarity. With nine albums and over two thousand concerts internationally with artists like Ingrid Laubrock, Anthony Braxton, Mary Halvorson, David Grisman, Tyshawn Sorey, Henry Grimes, Sam Bush, John Zorn, Nels Cline, and Mivos Quartet, Johnson brings a wild energy and excitement.

Max has been commissioned by the Jerome Foundation, Society of Composers Inc, Steven R. Gerber Trust, University of Glasgow; awarded by the New York Foundation of the Arts, Roulette, been featured on over fifty albums; and can be heard in Spike Lee's Academy Award winning film, "The BlacKkKlansman". Max Johnson currently teaches at Brooklyn College, and is the father to a beautiful chihuahua named Gabby.

Please visit Max’s Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more information.