| John has a long history in the music business. He was active in Washington DC after serving in the Air Force Band at Bolling AFB in Washington where he played for countless dignitaries. He played in various jazz groups as well as in more commercial situations as a civilian in Washington playing for shows, theater and society functions. He also was active in St Louis where he worked with Russ David and George Johnson. John works mostly on piano, playing private parties in homes and clubs, he works as solo piano or will furnish a duo, combo or bigger band. He stays pretty busy with this and writing arrangements for many bands. John works mostly as a single on piano where people want standards and show tunes played in a jazz style. He works all the country clubs in the area for various events. His list of tunes is in the thousands and he likes to play a job continuous style, sit down and play and go from one tune to the next until the gig is over with no interuption. On occasions he will use a bass and drums and horns.
Among his favorite piano players are Ray Bryant Dave McKenna, Ellis Larkin,
Joe Harnell and Pineas Newborn.
John arranges for many bands and has a number of charts in print. His charts are
in the swing idiom, are lyrical and not humproof. His basic music philosophy is
that "IT TAKES SOME TECHNIQUE TO PLAY IDEAS---BUT IT TAKES NO IDEAS TO PLAY TECHNIQUE'.
He plays for weddings, wakes, courtsmartials, bridge closings, igloo meltings, railroad wrecks, assorted natural disasters, divorces, IRS Audits, any group of 2 or more and other fun things. It is a blessing he does not sing.
If you would like to hear some of my big band arrangements, GO TO THIS WEBSITE
This takes you to my homepage that lists list a dozen or so charts. Follow the prompts, choose a tune and follow the prompts. You will see the score and it will play it for you. AAAAHHHHHH..the magic of electrons.. I hope you like them. |
