Arnetta Johnson

Trumpeter Arnetta Johnson is poised to intersect a new young audience and the sage jazz aficionados with a fresh, hot musical experience. Arnetta was considered the quintessential “band geek” at the Creative and Performing Arts High School in Camden, NJ, and went on study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2014 she was awarded a scholarship from Jill Scott’s Blues Babe Foundation. Scott is one of Johnson’s mentors, along with saxophonist Tia Fuller. A major moment in Arnetta’s career came when she received a call from her friend Crystal Torres, a trumpeter in Beyonce’s band, telling her that the band was auditioning trumpeters. That audition led her to the stage of Super Bowl LV1111, and later a spot as a featured trumpeter on Beyonce’s Formation Tour. Arnetta has gone on to work with celebrated artists like Jonelle Monet (on BET’s Black Girls Rock), Warren Wolf, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington, Christian McBride, Solange, and the list keeps on growing. Her band, SUNNY, is an acronym for Sounds Uplifting Nobility through Notes and Youth, and consists Simon Martinez, Henry Trife, Eric Whatley, Lawrence Farmer and Josh Thomas. Arnetta’s goal is to stand jazz on its head…disrupt, uplift, inspire and bridge the chasm of where jazz is, and take her sound to where jazz ain’t!