Jazz breaking news: John Etheridge Celebrates 40 Years Of Music Making With Week-Long Series Of Gigs

The guitarist during that span of time has crammed in a huge variety of work as a bandleader and in settings as diverse as with Soft Machine, Stéphane Grappelli, Nigel Kennedy, Andy Summers and Danny Thompson’s Whatever. Etheridge was inspired early on by Hank Marcin and Django Reinhardt and later by Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. After studying history of art at Essex University graduating in the early 1970s Etheridge played in rock bands before joining Soft Machine in 1975 after Allan Holdsworth left the band. By complete contrast later in the decade Etheridge began a long association with the great swing violinist Stéphane Grappelli and also started to forge his own career as a leader with a variety of groups including his swing group Sweet Chorus and Zappa project The Zappatistas as well as working with the Soft Machine Lagacy group.

Etheridge is a regular visitor to Pizza Express Jazz Club and for this special week taking place from 7-13 July he’s joined by some special guests. The line-up includes spots by Liane Carroll with Roger Carey and Mark Fletcher (7 July); Zappatistas (8 July); Soft Machine Legacy (9-10 July); John Williams (11, 12 July); and Chris Garrick (13 July). – Stephen Graham

For more go to www.pizzaexpresslive.co.uk or phone 0845 6027 017