John Ellis is a musician from Manchester the north of England.
His journey in music blossomed in the free music education system in place around Manchester, U.K. in the 1980s.
John has played and recorded with quite a few well known artists such as Corinne Bailey Rae, The Cinematic Orchestra 2001-2005, Lily Allen, Tom Jones, Mica Paris, The Breath, James Yorkston, John Squire (Stone Roses) (see discography for recordings).
In the early 1990's he played hundreds of various gigs around Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and the whole of the north. A regular touring band was the Snake Davis Band where John became known as a hammond organanist/vocalist.
In 1994, John toured extensively in Europe playing Frank Zappa music with Zappa protoge Ike Willis and Liverpool legends The Muffin Men, the creative freedom of Zappa inspired John to start a band of his own.
The 12-piece band "The John Ellis Big Bang" toured England between 1995 - 2001.
Between 2001-2005 John toured and recorded predominantly with The Cinematic Orchestra, DJ Vadim and John Squire.
In 2005-2008 Little Green formed with old friend vocalist/writer Judy Green. A distinctive band with roots in classic soul, hip-hop collaborations with DJ Vadim and acoustic based folk music from around the world.
In 2009 he was Assistant Producer on the Kirsty Almeida Decca Records album "Pure Blue Green/Deja Voodu" beginning a 5 year musical collaboration as musician and co-writer/arrange.
There have been scores for various theatre productions (not scores, just a few) including a National Theatre affiliated production based on the novel "A Clockwork Orange" for Benji Reid's Breaking Cycles theatre company called "Clockwork"
In 2015 John collaborated with visual artist Antony Barkworth Knight for the Irwin Mitchell commission at the Manchester Jazz Festival.
The piece featured live visual projection and 9 musicians, the performance of "Evolution: Seeds & Streams taking place at Manchester Town Hall. The soundtrack was released in September 2016 on the Gondwana label.
He manages a recording and production studio in Manchester called Limefield which continues to produce albums of his own music and with a wide range of artists and musicians. Regular live performances playing and singing around Britain and Ireland and around the world with regular collaborators Rioghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet, Kirk McElhinney and Baked ALaSka.