Arts & Entertainment
From ‘The Bear’ to the Blues, Chicago Piano Man Johnny Iguana at Home Playing All Kinds of Music
Johnny Iguana. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
Imagine being a 23-year-old musician and meeting one of your heroes, Chicago blues great Junior Wells, who then hires you to tour the world, playing keyboards and sharing the stage with the likes of Buddy Guy and a who’s who of the blues.
It happened to pianist Johnny Iguana in 1994 when he met singer and harmonica player Wells, who signed him up to be the youngest member of his band.
Iguana toured with Wells for years and then launched his own bands — including The Claudettes, a stylish cabaret rock band who play Fitzgerald’s on May 2.
More recently, Iguana co-wrote music for “The Bear” (FX on Hulu).
And he just released an album of solo piano music recorded live at Chicago’s historic Delmark Records — the same label that recorded Wells’ “Hoodoo Man Blues” (1965), considered one of the best blues albums ever made.
The new LP “Johnny Iguana – At Delmark” includes standards such as Wells’ “Messin’ With the Kid” and unexpected tunes like Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” and AC/DC’s “Riff Raff” — all instrumental and all on piano.
Iguana estimates he’s played the Chicago Blues Festival 25 times since moving to town 31 years ago. Not bad for a kid from Philadelphia named Brian Berkowitz who adopted the name Johnny Iguana for an earlier band, The Reptile Orchestra.
WTTW News spoke with Iguana about a career that includes a variety of music, a hit TV show and a daring new record.
WTTW News: Talk about your music for ‘The Bear,’ which you write with a partner.
Johnny Iguana: Yeah, I started making music with JQ of the Q Brothers, who have an ongoing series of hip-hop Shakespeare adaptations at Chicago Shakespeare. He and I write all of the original score for ‘The Bear.’ We got some work on the first season of ‘The Bear’ and did a whole lot on the second season.
JQ knew one of the producers from Chicago and was able to submit a bit of music for a scene in the first season, and then he asked me to come on board after the demands were getting a little out of his comfort zone. And then they started using us a lot as we got into Season 2.
Do the producers of ‘The Bear’ give you much direction? Do they show you scenes they want you to score?
Iguana: Sometimes, but the whole second season we actually just fed them a bunch of themes we came up with knowing a little bit about the arc of Season 2, and they ended up using a bunch of those themes throughout the whole season, themes that we wrote without any scene in mind.
It’s kind of whatever the show needs, but I’m pretty versatile in my background so whatever they need for a scene, I can make. And JQ is a wizard producer. He makes the beats, and I’m sort of the chords and notes guy for the most part.
You were 23 when Junior Wells hired you and you moved to Chicago.
Iguana: He was quite mythical for me because in my first blues band in Philly, two-thirds of our set were Junior Wells songs because those were the records we had. Those were the blues records that led us into the music. So to meet him and get a chance to join his band was ridiculously significant for me.
Johnny Iguana backstage with Junior Wells. (Courtesy of Johnny Iguana)
What was he like as a boss, as a mentor?
Iguana: Junior was my favorite member of the band. During the sober light of day when he’d sit there at a diner or something, he was just so charismatic. He had this kind of glow to him. He was really smart and funny, very childlike in an appealing way. He was warm and supportive and kind of fatherly to me when I came out here. He got me into a little hot water because he gave me so many solos that the other musicians started being resentful, I think, but he was excited with his new toy.
Junior played with Muddy Waters in the 1950s. Did he talk about those days?
Iguana: He was more focused on the present. He did say that the reason he drank Tanqueray before a show was that early on he had stage fright and Muddy would say ‘Have a hit of this before you go out there,’ so Junior would sort of put it on Muddy for having started this! But the fact was, Junior was like 5’3”, 105 pounds and barely ate. So when he would have two shots of Tanqueray, he would be beyond buzzed.
What was it like to be vaulted into the limelight in his band?
Iguana: That was really my entry into professional music life. It was misleading because he was one of the biggest names, so I went from playing little clubs in Philly and New York to all of a sudden playing festivals and theaters — all of which were sold out across the world. [laughs] It was a false representation of life and music life, but it was exciting and really fun at the time.
Johnny Iguana playing live with Junior Wells. (Courtesy of Johnny Iguana)
Were you playing the blues when you were young?
Iguana: I had classical lessons when I was a kid, and then as I started to enjoy pop music, I would get whole books of sheet music, including a Led Zeppelin book, a Michael Jackson “Thriller” book, and I had Rush’s “Moving Pictures.” So I’d play music transcribed from rock band to solo piano for all this stuff. Super geeky, you know — prog rock on piano.
Your new recording is on Delmark, the local label that recorded Junior Wells’ classic “Hoodoo Man Blues.”
Iguana: Yeah, Junior Wells and also Otis Rush and Magic Sam — three of the reasons why I’m here in Chicago.
The new LP “Johnny Iguana – At Delmark.”
I’ve had it on repeat in my car. It’s impressive and a lot of fun. It’s also solo — you’re all alone without a net, or at least without any overdubs.
Iguana: All live in the studio, just done in three afternoons, including the first afternoon they told me they wanted to make the album. I just went in there and started playing and it got recorded. They wanted me to come and play the piano for some test recordings for their refurbished tape machine, and they had an engineer there, so I just went in and started playing.
It has a real live sound, like you’re in the room playing.
Iguana: It’s full-on unedited takes. And there is some sloppiness to it. You know you’re hearing a real human playing. Perfection is not part of what I do or I’m capable of. That’s what’s nice about the blues, the sort of sloppiness of it is part of the sound.
Doesn’t sound sloppy to me. I was surprised by some song choices. AC/DC’s ‘Riff Raff’ doesn’t seem like it would be a natural fit for solo piano.
Iguana: That particular tune works so great on the piano, it really does. And all those tunes I chose are songs that I thought at some point this would make a great solo piano piece for me. And there are original compositions. Delmark just very much wanted me to play what I wanted to play.
Is there a ‘Chicago style’ when it comes to Blues piano?
Iguana: When Otis Spann came along in the ‘50s and ‘60s, he just rewrote it. I can’t find any recording in which he doesn’t have this combination of fluidity and poetry and power. A lot of people I know love New Orleans piano, and it’s great and sounds like a party. Chicago blues piano is a little darker-hued, when I think of Otis Spann or someone like Sunnyland Slim. But for me the Chicago sound is Otis Spann, because that’s what got me excited. I always come back to it as the pinnacle.
Watch Otis Spann perform “Spann’s Blues” on German television in 1963 (posted by Blues Piano Sheets):
There are three record release parties for “Johnny Iguana – At Delmark”:
- April 29: Hey Nonny in Arlington Heights, Ill.
- May 12: SPACE in Evanston, Ill.
- May 16: Hong Kong Pizza Party (a festival) in Yorkville, Ill.
Marc Vitali is the JCS Fund of the DuPage Foundation Arts Correspondent.
