Master Guitar
John Elliott
John Elliott was a jazz pianist, performer, arranger, and teacher. He spent his career in Kansas City. I don't know when he began teaching, I would guess sometime in the late '40's. He retired in '90 or '91. His students included players of many different instruments. Piano, guitar, horn players, pretty much anything. He called what he taught, "The Theory of Harmony."
John was a formative influence; by far THE most important person in my musical development. He also proved to be a complicated and sometimes difficult individual. I studied with him for 7 years, 1979-1986.
As an educator, John Elliott produced many world-class musicians (Pat Metheny, Larry Williams, Bobby Watson and others), but my relationship to him had a unique aspect; years after I studied with him I published a guitar method book that includes some of his content. I therefore dealt with him concerning approval, copyright and residuals issues.
I have written a 3-part blog on my relationship with John:
In Part 1 I tell of the years (1979-1986) that I studied with John Elliott.
In the first section of Part 2 I tell of the post-lesson years from 1986 until 1991, when John retired, and of how I continued a relationship with him during those years, and how I used him as a positive as well as a negative model for my own teaching.
In the second section of Part 2 (1991-2001) I talk about the series of events that led to the publishing of my method book, Vertical Truth: Chordal Mechanisms for the Guitar. John was retired and we had no contact during those years. But due to the fact that well over 50% of the book is directly attributable to him, our sometimes contentious relationship picked up again in 2001:
In the first section of Part 3, I tell of the issues surrounding the publication of my method book and of getting John's approval. I dealt with John concerning his content that was included in the book, as well as some personal issues.
In the second section of Part 3, I tell of developments to the method that occurred after John died in 2013. Some early (1950's) documents have surfaced that contain early presentations of his method.
Links
There is very little of John Elliott on the net. His career predates it, and as far as I know he never left Kansas City. He therefore has not enjoyed wider-than-local recognition as a player. However, his influence is felt worldwide because of some of his students who have gone on to major recognition. If you've listened to Pat Metheny, Bobby Watson, Larry Williams, Danny Embrey, Steve Cardenas - you're hearing John.
Jazz Ambassadors Magazine - Feb/Mar 2018: John Elliott: The Theory Guru Who Influenced a Generation of Kansas City Jazz Musicians.
Starting in 1962, John wrote and arranged for the KC Kix Band, a big band that existed as a writing and arranging vehicle for John. See the JAM Magazine article here.
June/July 2015 issue of Jazz Ambassadors Magazine features a story on Tim Whitmer; a Kansas City Jazz pianist. Besides studying with George Salisbury, he also studied with John:
Tim also studied with another legendary KC educator, John Elliott. “John had a waiting list of six months to a year. I put my name in. For a couple of years I was blessed to be taking lessons with both George and John, and that was a great combination for me. George really taught the ear. He’d play a chord and ask if I heard it. He’d play chords that were very strange, things you would never think to play at that point. John taught methodically, the logic; he’d teach the reason why you played that chord, and how this chord led to the next chord, which led to another chord, and the different voicings.
“With John you got a half-hour block. If your block was 3:00 to 3:30, it ended right at 3:30, even if you came in late. He charged a month ahead of time. If you called in sick or had to miss for any reason it was fine with John, he had your money! At the 30 minute mark, he could be in the middle of a sentence and it would be over. There were people waiting. At one time I had to take off for a couple of months, and when I was ready to come back I had to wait six months for an opening. It seems that everybody who was around at that time studied with John.
I shared the comment Bob Brookmeyer made about John, a life-long friend, that John was the only person who would give him an honest opinion about his music. Tim laughed. “One time when I had really started playing I brought a live tape from the night before that I thought was pretty darn good. It showed that I was making progress. I asked John if he’d listen to it and give his opinion. I had 30 minutes, however I wanted to use it. He tore it apart. It didn’t hurt my feelings. He was right. He gave a clinical answer. Later, when he eventually tells you something is good, what a compliment! George was different. If he didn’t like something, he’d just be silent. If he liked it, he’d say so.”
April/May 2015 issue of Jazz Ambassadors Magazine featured an article on four important Kansas City guitar players:
Pat Metheny, Rob Whitsett, Danny Embrey and Rod Fleeman. The article had this to say:
"All four guitarists took lessons from pianist John Elliott, which gave them another influence in common. For a generation of players, Elliott was the music theory guru, opening ears and minds to what Pat called “a wider palette of harmony.” Rob studied with Elliott for less than two years, but he remembers being amazed as how well John understood the guitar. “At first I had doubts about John being able to teach me, since I was a guitar player and not a piano player. That went away real quick. It blew my mind that he understood the fretboard of the guitar more than I did.”
“He was teaching theory that was particularly important for guitar players,” Rod recalls. “John would turn the brain on. I’d say, ‘Well, that particular chord, I don’t think you can play it on the guitar,’ and he’d say, ‘Oh you’re not looking. Try that lower string group.’”
The article in its entirety can be found here.
Gary Sivils is a well-known trumpet player around Kansas City. He was a major influence on Pat Metheny. Gary was the cover interview for the June/July 2009 edition of Jazz Ambassador magazine. He had this to say about John Elliott:
John and Bob Brookmeyer have been life-long friends. Bob was the cover interview of the Feb/Mar edition of Jazz Ambassador Magazine. He had this to say about John Elliott.
From the Editor's Corner of the April/May issue of JAM.
2001 - John looks at my book, and approves.
From the Kansas City Star newspaper, probably sometime in 1979.