For the singer, see Johnnie Ray

Johnnie Ray

Johnnie Ray was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor of what would become rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage personality.-Early life:John Alvin Ray was born in...

.

John Anthony Pompeo, better known as Johnny Rae (b. August 11, 1934, Saugus, Massachusetts

Saugus, Massachusetts

Saugus is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 26,628 at the 2010 census.-History:Saugus was first settled in 1629. Saugus is an Indian name believed to mean "great" or "extended"...

), is an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 drummer and vibraphonist

Vibraphone

The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....

.

Rae studied at the New England Conservatory and at the Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

 in the early 1950s. His first major professional gig was with Herb Pomeroy

Herb Pomeroy

Irving Herbert "Herb" Pomeroy, III was an influential swing and bebop jazz trumpeter and educator...

 in 1953-54; following this he played with George Shearing

George Shearing

Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...

 (1955-56), Johnny Smith

Johnny Smith

Johnny Smith is an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist.-Early years:...

 (1956), Ralph Sharon

Ralph Sharon

-Biography:Born in London, he emigrated to America in 1953, becoming a U.S. citizen five years later.By 1958, Ralph Sharon was recording with Tony Bennett, the start of a more than 40 year working relationship as Bennett's man behind the music on many Grammy winning studio recordings, and touring...

 (1957), Cozy Cole

Cozy Cole

Cozy Cole was an American jazz drummer who scored a #1 Cashbox magazine hit with the record "Topsy Part 2". "Topsy" peaked at number three on Billboard Hot 100, and at number one on the R&B chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The track peaked at #29 in the UK...

 (1957-58), Herbie Mann

Herbie Mann

Herbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...

 (1959-60), Cal Tjader

Cal Tjader

Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. a.k.a. Cal Tjader was a Latin jazz musician, though he also explored various other jazz idioms. Unlike other American jazz musicians who experimented with the music from Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America, he never abandoned it, performing it until his...

 (1961-66, 1968-70), Stan Getz

Stan Getz

Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...

 (1962), Gábor Szabó

Gábor Szabó

Gábor Szabó was a Hungarian jazz guitarist, famous for mixing jazz, pop-rock and his native Hungarian music.-Biography:...

, Charlie Byrd

Charlie Byrd

Charlie Lee Byrd was a famous and versatile American guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. His earliest and strongest musical influence was Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist. Byrd became the American guitarist who best understood and played Brazilian music, especially the Bossa Nova genre...

, Earl Hines

Earl Hines

Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...

, Art Van Damme

Art Van Damme

Art Van Damme was a jazz accordionist.-Biography:Born in Norway, Michigan, he began playing the accordion at age nine and started classical study when his family moved to Chicago in 1934. In 1941 he joined Ben Bernie's band as an accordionist. He adapted Benny Goodman's music to the accordion...

, and Barney Kessel

Barney Kessel

Barney Kessel was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. Generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century, he was noted in particular for his vast knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies...

. In addition to modern jazz, he also plays Latin jazz

Latin jazz

Latin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...

percussion.

Since the 1980s Rae has worked in music education and has authored several instruction books.

John was married to Mary Carroll, a San Francisco technical recruiter and author, for 3 years.

Discography

Incomplete

• Stan Getz: Big Band Bossa Nova (Verve, 1962)
• Earl Hines: At The Party (Delmark, 1970)
• Barney Kessel: Three Guitars (Concord, 1974)
• Herbie Mann: Flautista! (Verve, 1959)
• Anita O'Day: Time For 2 (Verve, 1962)
• Johnny Smith And His New Quartet (Roulette/Fresh Sound Records, 1956)
• Cal Tjader: Soul Sauce (Verve, 1964)
• Art Van Damme: State Of Art (MPS, 1970)