John Flanders
Who?
John Flanders has been one of the most in demand saxophone/woodwind player in Salt Lake City and the Intermountain West for over a decade. You can hear him on t.v. and radio commercials, as well as television shows and movie soundtracks. In addition to being a renowned bandleader and session player, John's recordings have received critical and popular acclaim, leading to a growing reputation as a composer and arranger.
John has won numerous prestigious City Weekly Best of Utah awards as an instrumentalist as well as with his classic jazz groups. He has performed the National Anthem solo at NBA games, performed with the Utah Symphony, and toured Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and more. His freelancing has lead to performances with The Temptations, Billy Preston, Solomon Burke, Wayne Newton, Frankie Avalon, Rodney Dangerfield, Don Rickles, Patty Andrews, Sam Moore, Alex Acuna, and many others. His groups have played main stage at the Park City Internation Jazz Fest, they've headlined jazz festivals, in Colorado, and performed again this year at the Salt Lake Jazz Festival.
His current fusion-swing project, "Double Helix" was named best jazz group shortly after its debut in 2001. They now have their third cd out "Natural Selection", which features they great playing of all the members along with Wayne Christiansen, Wayne Burdick, Ryan Shepherd, and guest bassist Will Lee. (See Recordings page)
"Double Helix" has also performed nationally on the NPR radio show, Marketplace. John wrote additional original music for a performance on NPR's "To The Best Of Our Knowledge".
He continues adding to his session resume with calls for arranging and composing, saxes, flutes, bass clarinet...
John performs primarily on tenor, alto sax, and flute. He also records and performs on clarinet, bass clarinet, piccolo, baritone and soprano saxes, and keyboards.
Our sax man is originally from Canton Ohio, studied at Ohio State University and at the University of Connecticut. John's studied with players such as Ted Nash and Lou Donaldson, Ernie Krivda, and Eddie Daniels. He's performed in New York and also lived and worked in Los Angeles. The open seas are not safe from this jazz man either, as he spent a number of years playing in cruise ship orchestras when he backed up numerous Vegas acts and entertainers. He has taught professionally for over 15 years and lectured at the college level on jazz music history.
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