Leon "Chaino" Johnson (1927 – July 8, 1999, pronounced: "Cha-ee-no"), the self-styled "percussion genius of Africa,"[1] was an American bongo player.

"[1] According to his brother, George Johnson, Chaino lost touch with his family and "vacillated between the brink of stardom and edge of starvation as he made a name for himself in the late 1940s and '50s as a percussionist.

Chaino and Allan released five additional albums: Percussion for Playboys, Jungle Echoes, Night of the Spectre, Africana, and Temptation.

"[1] The fictional biography developed for Chaino included a story of being brought to the United States by a missionary and his wife after his tribe was massacred by hostile neighbors.

"[2] In addition to his solo albums, Chaino also worked as a session musician and appeared in two feature films, Night Tide (1961) and The Devil's Hand (1962), and a television movie, The Phantom (1961).

[5] Chaino's music enjoyed renewed popularity in the late 1990s as part of the revival of interest in the exotica and ultra lounge genres.

"[8] Another reviewer in 1999 wrote that Chaino's work consisted of "trippy tunes" that "could be heard in settings like tiki parties and porno theaters.

Carl Brandon assisted Chaino by renting a small house and encouraging him to apply for government benefits to stabilize his gypsy lifestyle.