He championed African American culture with a series of successful concerts at Carnegie Hall in the late 1930s called From Spirituals to Swing. He signed Pete Seeger to Columbia Records in the late-50s even while Seeger was blacklisted by the industry for years during the Red Scare of McCarthyism. He was responsible for re-issuing Robert Johnson’s 1936-37 recordings in 1961, leading to a revived interest in his music that influenced the British blues boom. He was father to musician John Hammond Jr., himself one of the greatest blues interpreters of the past 60 years. In turn Hammond Jr. introduced Robbie Robertson and The Hawks (The Band) to Bob Dylan.