John Etheridge

John Michael Glyn Etheridge (born 12 January 1948 in Lambeth, South East London) is a British jazz/fusion guitarist associated with the Canterbury Scene.

He began playing at 13, his primary influences then being Hank Marvin of The Shadows and Django Reinhardt. Although his father was a jazz pianist, he was primarily self-taught. By the time he joined his first notable band, Rush Release (including future Gracious! drummer Robert Lipson), his influences were Peter Green, Jeff Beck and, later, Jimi Hendrix. The band played at London's Speakeasy Club ca. 1966, on occasion jamming with such luminaries as Eric Clapton. Between 1967-70, Etheridge's studies (history of art at Essex University) took him away from the London scene. A crucial discovery for him during this period was John McLaughlin's debut album Extrapolation.

Back in London, Etheridge briefly joined the Deep Purple offshoot Warhorse, followed by a stint with Icarus, shortly after that band had completed its debut album The Marvel World Of Icarus. "Although I was billed on the record, I did not actually play on it. The only thing of note I did with them was a tour of Rumania in 1971, at the height of the Ceaucescu regime. Halfway through the tour, we were expelled form the country as a pernicious influence - I remember that the crowds went absolutely wild when we played which enraged the authorities ! This was my first foreign tour after leaving university".

More significantly, in 1971 he helped form Abednego, which broke up after a year having failed to secure a recording contract, despite an interesting line-up which included ex-Affinity organist Lynton Naiff, ex-Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band bassist Dennis Cowan, and reedsman John Altman, later a noted composer of film soundtracks.

Etheridge's fortunes took a turn for the better when, in late 1972, he joined ex-Curved Air violinist Darryl Way's band Wolf, which went on to record three albums in the progressive rock canon for the Deram label, Canis Lupus (1973), Saturation Point (1973) and Night Music (1974). It also provided an outlet for his first compositions, at a rate of one or two on each album.

Wolf's break-up was followed by a brief interim in the Global Village Trucking Company for a UK tour supporting Gong in early 1975, before a recommendation from fellow guitarist Allan Holdsworth led to him joining Soft Machine, now in full fusion mode having just released their landmark Bundles album. Etheridge went on to record two albums with the band, Softs (1976) and Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris (1978). Perhaps the best document of his work with Soft Machine, however, is the more recent live CD British Tour 1975, recorded while Mike Ratledge was still a member of the band (he only guested briefly on Softs).

With Soft Machine's activities slowing down and ultimately (by 1978) stopping completely, Etheridge developed parallel ventures, including a long-term collaboration with French violin legend Stéphane Grappelli (numerous world tours from 1976–81), and the band 2nd Vision with fellow Softs member, violinist Ric Sanders, which released an excellent self-titled album in 1980, but fell victim to the hostile post-punk environment and broke up in 1981.

The 1980s saw Etheridge remain very active on the live front (including a reunion with Soft Machine for the band's final series of concerts at Ronnie Scott's club in 1984), but much less so in the studio. "1981 was a sort of watershed year for me... there's sort of before and after 1981. Since then I've mostly played on my own or led bands, playing alongside other people but not in settled formations. That was partly because I liked to do that, and partly because, frankly, I didn't really know what to do with myself at that point. I'd always enjoyed playing sort of jazz-type gigs, so I started doing it... People sometimes ask me why I didn't do (solo albums) before (the 1990s). I don't know, really. Since 1981-82, what I've done is playing. And the thing is, when you make an album nowadays, you do it off your own bat. It all comes from you, you have to make it happen. The labels are not able to put out money, you have to pay for yourself. So there's no good answer, really - I should have been making albums since about 1984...".

In 1982, Etheridge played solo concerts in Australia and duo dates with bassist Brian Torff in the US. In 1984 he toured England with his own trio, and the following year joined forces with ex-Isotope guitarist Gary Boyle. Between 1989-93, he was a member of ex-Pentangle bassist Danny Thompson's group Whatever, playing on the album Elemental (1990). Between 1988-94, he did a lot of touring in Germany with ex-Colosseum saxist Dick Heckstall-Smith, recording two albums as the Dick Heckstall-Smith / John Etheridge Band, Live in Erlangen and Obsession Fees. Also in 1988 he made a duo record with New York guitarist Vic Juris, Bohemia, and toured with Biréli Lagrène. Also of note was the (sadly unrecorded) Elton Dean/John Etheridge Quartet with Fred Baker (bass) and Mark Fletcher (drums). In 1992, he joined violinist Nigel Kennedy's live band, playing on his albums Kafka (1996) and The Kennedy Experience - The Music Of Jimi Hendrix (1999). In 1994, he released a duo album, Invisible Thread, with ex-Police guitarist and longtime friend Andy Summers (interestingly also a former Soft Machine guitarist, albeit in a much earlier incarnation of the group), and did a world tour with him.

In 1994, Etheridge at last released his first album as a leader, Ash, mostly featuring his regular band at the time - Steve Franklin on keyboards, Henry Thomas on bass and Mark Fletcher on drums - as well as duets with bassist Dudley Phillips. This was followed in the 2000s by Chasing Shadows (2000), I Didn't Know, Stitched Up (2006, with his Trio North), In House - Live In London (2007, with Arild Andersen and John Marshall), Alone - Live ! (2008) and Break Even (2008, with Liane Carroll).

In addition to countless one-off line-ups assembled for jazz gigs, Etheridge is involved in several long-term projects : a guitar duo with Australian-born guitar legend John Williams, which released Live In Dublin - Places Between; the Grappelli tribute Sweet Chorus, which released Sweet Chorus - Tribute to Grappelli in 1998; the Frank Zappa tribute band Zappatistas (formed 1999), who released a live CD, The Music Of Frank Zappa - Absolutely Live (2001) and have since toured widely, appearing at the German progressive rock/jazz festival Zappanale in 2006; and Soft Machine Legacy, alongside fellow ex-Soft Machine members Hugh Hopper, John Marshall and Elton Dean (the latter replaced by Theo Travis after he died in early 2006). They have so far released two studio albums (both including Etheridge compositions), Soft Machine Legacy (2005) and Steam (2007), and two live releases, Live in Zandaam (2005) and Live At The New Morming (2006), the latter also a DVD, filmed just weeks prior to Dean's passing.