Jay Johnson (singer)
American musician
James "Jay" Johnson established himself as one of the top bass-baritone singers in the Detroit doo-wop and soul music scene during the pre-Motown years. He was a member of the Detroit group Nolan Strong & The Diablos and can be heard on the group's Fortune Records recordings from late 1956 on.
While at Fortune Records, Johnson also recorded with Andre Williams' 'New Group.' He can also be heard as the dominant bass voice on Nathaniel Mayer's hit "Village Of Love".
Johnson would later form The Velvet Angels and The Four Sonics. He is currently performing with a new Diablos group he organized, Nolan Strong's Diablos – Johnson is the only original member.
Nolan Strong and the Diablos, Fortune Records
Johnson, 15 years old at the time, joined the Nolan Strong & the Diablos in 1956. Johnson was introduced to Nolan Strong through fellow Fortune Records artist Andre Williams. Johnson performed and recorded in Andre Williams' New Group. Johnson is heard on William's songs: "Bacon Fat", "Just Because Of A Kiss", "Mean Jean", and "Bobby Jean". Along with Johnson, Andre Williams’ "New Group" also consisted of, Gino Parks, Bobby Calhoun, and Steve Gaston.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american musician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16730353. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1956.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jay Johnson (singer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.