User:John Burnett Orchestra

The John Burnett Orchestra

John Burnett was born in England on January 9, 1939 in Abbey Hulton Stoke on Trent Staffordshire and raised in Stone, Staffordshire.

John began his interest in music and took music lessons on piano at the age of five. He started playing coronet and trumpet at the age of eleven when he joined the Stone Town Brass Band and also continued with piano and studied theory, composition and arranging. He was drafted into the British Military in December 1957 and joined the military band as a trumpeter. He decided to stay on in the military band for a total of six years in the Queens Own Hussars during which time he attended the Royal Military School of Music at Knellar Hall and studied trumpet under Professor Jack Mackintosh and studied piano and theory under Professor R.W. Tulip during 1959. He also obtained certificates and diplomas with examinations being taken at the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

He was discharged from the British Military in 1963 and John made his way to London where he remained for nineteen years as a free lance trumpet player and bandleader. During this time he performed with many well known musicians in London and led his own big band, quartets and quintets on the London music scene for most of this time. During this time he recorded with the Pete Compton Orchestra on Dobell records, and also with a soul band known as the Boys Blue on the Phillips label. . In October 1980, John emigrated to Canada and left the music scene. He later moved to Chicago in 1990 and in 1996 became the morning jazz radio announcer on Chicago’s prime jazz station on the 6am to 10am morning drive shift and has become a most popular jazz radio celebrity where he still broadcasts from today. In addition he formed his own big band The John Burnett Orchestra consisting of the best of Chicago musicians. As of 2008 the orchestra is still going strong with a very busy itinerary and has performed with many major artists in recent years. In the year 2000 his orchestra recorded their first album Swingin in the Windy City with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, an album that put the band on the Chicago jazz map. This connection with Buddy DeFranco resulted in the John Burnett Orchestra being mentioned in the autobiography of Buddy thus putting John and his band in the American Jazz history books.

The second John Burnett Orchestra CD has now been released called West of State Street/East of Harlem which was recorded live with trumpeter Randy Sandke at the legendary FitzGerald’s in Berwyn, Illinois and has been released on the Delmark Records label and is available with international distribution. The title of the album represents the location of FitzGerald’s Night Club in Berwyn, where the band recorded the album.

Other well known artists who have performed with the John Burnett Orchestra include Jazz legends such as drummer Louie Bellson, Vibraphone player Peter Appleyard, trumpeter Byron Stripling as well as Randy Sandke and of course Buddy DeFranco. John can be heard on the air at www.wdcb.org for world wide web listening, or fans can go directly to the station at WDCB 90.9 FM Public Radio in the listening region.

Among other things, John Burnett has been an international Entrepreneur, security expert, business owner, private investigator, expert witness, and has worked for multinational major corporations at senior management level. His goal is to travel internationally with the John Burnett Orchestra with goals to play at famous venues such as Birdland in New York and Carnegie Hall and to also take the band back to his homeland in England on tour and to continue recording with many other major jazz artists. Perhaps all this can be done with a little help from my friends says John. John had become an American citizen and he is very pleased to say how proud he is to be an American!