Kashmere Stage Band -

Kashmere Stage Band (KSB) was an American funk ensemble comprised of students from Kashmere High School in Houston. Their director, music teacher Conrad O. Johnson, led KSB through multiple iterations over a ten-year period. After their 1969 no-label release, five studio albums and two live discs appeared through 1975 on self-press Kram Records, each in pressings of 1000 copies.

Background

Kashmere Stage Band formed in 1968 in Houston when band director Conrad O. Johnson selected students from Kashmere High School for a stage ensemble.

Johnson was born on November 15, 1915, in Victoria, Texas, and moved with his family to Houston at age nine. His father, dentist and musician Charles Johnson, directed the band at Jack Yates High School and gave Conrad his first alto saxophone.

Johnson attended Houston College for Negroes, then transferred to Wiley College in Marshall, where he earned degrees in music and English. He began teaching in Texas public schools in 1941 and returned to Houston in the mid-forties as band director at Yates High School. Johnson later transferred to Booker T. Washington High School. In 1957, he joined Kashmere Gardens Junior-Senior High School and led the stage-band program. Johnson also led the Houston R&B group Connie’s Combo, which included organist Leon Spencer and guitarist Melvin Sparks.

In 1967, Johnson attended an Otis Redding concert and returned to Kashmere with plans for a more physical stage presentation. He asked students to combine instrumental performance with choreographed movement. Johnson combined big-band jazz arrangements with funk rhythms, current rhythm-and-blues material, and original numbers. The ensemble developed the format through school concerts and stage-band competitions. Johnson planned an LP in 1969 as a souvenir of the program and a benchmark for later classes.

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