He received the Ted Heath arrangers prize for a big band arrangement in 2000, and currently runs the E17 big band, which is due to commission Liam Noble to write a suite for a festival in the summer. Having studied music at Cambridge University and London's Guildhall, he has since toured the UK and Germany and recorded with Gilad Atzmon, and currently plays regularly with Tim Garland, Tim Whitehead, Guillermo Rozenthuler's folkloric quartet 'Rioplatenses', Dog Soup (recently featured in Jazzwise), and the Koby Israelite Group, with which he toured the UK, Poland, Bulgaria, Portugal and Austria in 2008. John is also the pianist for many tango groups, including the Birmingham-based 'El Ultimo Tango' and Transtango, a multimedia project featuring Tim Garland and Eduardo Vassell as well as recently working with Lighthouse trio.