Co-founder of Pittsburgh's Afro American Music Institute James Johnson dies

[Dr. Nelson Harrison]

Co-founder of Pittsburgh's Afro American Music Institute James Johnson dies
90.5 WESA | By Bill O'Driscoll
Published March 17, 2026 at 2:46 PM EDT
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A man and a woman embrace
Courtesy of Cecilia Coleman
James T. Johnson and his wife, Pamela Johnson
Jazz musician and music scholar James T. Johnson, Jr., who co-founded Pittsburgh’s Afro American Music Institute with his wife, Pamela, died Monday at age 76.

Cecilia Coleman, one of his five children, said Johnson had been in a rehab facility for a hip ailment and died unexpectedly.

“Anybody that knows him, he touched their heart,” said Coleman. “He was a pillar of the community.”

Johnson was an accomplished pianist who toured internationally as far afield as Belgium, Ethiopia and Senegal. Coleman said he shared the stage with jazz greats including Herbie Hancock, Ahmad Jamal and Wynton Marsalis.

But locally, he was also known as an educator and mentor.

Over its 44 years, the AAMI, long based in Homewood, has taught thousands of students of all ages in its music classes, through its Boys Choir and more. Johnson also taught music theory at the University of Pittsburgh, Community College of Allegheny County, Carlow University and Duquesne University and served as director of Pitt’s Gospel Choir.

In a memorial post on Facebook, artist Christina Springer called the AAMI “Pittsburgh’s largest musical family.”

“That was his legacy,” Coleman said. “He loved teaching.”

Johnson was born in Tennessee, in 1949, and grew up mostly in Louisiana. He studied music education at Grambling State University and in 1977 came to Pittsburgh to study at Pitt, where in 1988 he earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology.

He and his wife founded the AAMI in 1982 and held the first classes at St. James AME Church, in East Liberty. The institute moved to another location in Homewood before occupying its present location, on Hamilton Avenue, in 2003.

Johnson, known to many as “Dr. J,” approached music education from an Afrocentric perspective.

“I think Dr. Johnson understood music was more than sound. It was identity, it was culture, it was legacy,” said Deryck Tines, a pastor, musician and composer who was close friends with Johnson, conducted AAMI’s gospel choir and led its music program for seniors.

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Aaron J. Johnson, who chairs Pitt’s Department of Music, met Johnson as a Carnegie Mellon student playing in Pitt’s jazz band. He said for 20 years or more, Johnson taught the course African American Music in the US, which he developed with musician and Pitt professor the late Nathan Davis.

"Dr. James Tare Johnson made his life count in Pittsburgh, and over the years thousands of lives have been improved through the study and performance of music," Aaron J. Johnson wrote in an email.

James T. Johnson Jr.’s five children include James T. Johnson III, a noted jazz drummer who was part of the band for the Jazz at Emmanuel program at the North Side's Emmanuel Episcopal Church, which his father led for years.

Tines, an AAMI board member, said the group will keep pursuing its mission.

“The legacy will continue, the work will continue,” he said.

A public memorial is pending.

Updated: March 18, 2026 at 2:24 PM EDT
This story has been updated to includ

[Dr. Nelson Harrison]