John Elliott's Blog

Juniper Green Note, Edinburgh’s grassroots jazz club based at Baberton Golf Club, has received funding from The National Lottery through Creative Scotland — a significant step forward for the club since its founding in October 2025.

A thriving local grassroots jazz club is continuing to strike a chord with audiences across Balerno and Juniper Green.

I’ve been trying to memorise this song, because Bill Evan’s made it sound so fantastic.

A friend of mine recently commissioned me to write an arrangement of Happy Birthday.

I am delighted to announce that the classic book, Harmony with LEGO Bricks (Conrad Cork), is available for purchase once more.

A few years ago, I was on my way out after playing a trio gig in Edinburgh’s Jazz Bar, when I was stopped by a member of the audience.

I’ve been thinking about writing one of my articles about jazz harmony, may be transcribing some tricky jazz piano arrangement by Bill Evans or Kenny Barron and then analysing and explaining what they were were doing and may have been thinking.

You may have looked at the standard, Stella By Starlight, and wondered what horrors lurk beneath those chords.

EDIT: Conrad’s book is at last available as a PDF e-book.

I had a painful experience about 25 years ago and I found a really powerful solution that I know will help others and is worth sharing.