Meet John Dalton | Drummer, composer, and bandleader

We had the good fortune of connecting with John Dalton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi John, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Like many in the arts, it felt like music chose me, rather than the other way around. In high school, I started taking drum lessons because one of my father’s colleagues was a player and teacher. My teacher, Mike Plunkett, was really into jazz and improvised music, and I admired his playing, so I asked him for recommendations. He burned me a copy of Coltrane’s Africa/Brass, and hearing that was the inception point for me as an artist. I had never heard anything like that before. I distinctly remember listening to it in the car with my dad, and turning to him and saying “where has this music been my whole life?” Of course it took a while after that point to realize that music was a potential career path I could pursue.

For me, playing and improvising is something I need, it helps me to stay balanced. I was attracted jazz because of the freedom and variety it provides. I could play the same songs with the same people at the same place two nights in a row, but how the music unfolds those two nights would be completely different. There’s something really unique and special about improvising that I feel isn’t possible to capture in other art forms.

A large part of my artistic career is as a music educator, which is a natural extension of my upbringing (my parents are both educators).

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a drummer and composer. I operate within various dialects of the jazz vernacular. I primarily write and arrange the music for my group Spheres of Influence. The compositions I write for Spheres of Influence might be categorized as modal or modern jazz. My goal as an artist is to represent the world around me as I see it. Themes that run throughout my work are nature, the beauty of the human experience, and the political realities of our world today.

I see Jazz composition as frame building. The goal of my pieces is to create an atmosphere and structure that inspires the performers to create their own tapestry within the frame. While the frame I build may be ornate, a piece doesn’t come alive until we create it within a performance.

A large part of my work as an artist is also within the field of improvised music. In improvised music, we will often start a performance with little or no preconcieved material. We create both the frame and the tapestry in real time, relying on our ears and fellow performers to create music. I’m attracted to this style of playing because of the freedom and ability to explore it provides. You can really explore the sonic, timbral, and melodic possibilities of the drum set in ways not commonly utilized in other contexts.

A more recent thread of my work has been in the production world. During the throes of the Pandemic, I got into making music using a DAW (digital audio workstation). With these pieces I will often play all the instruments on a track, building it from the ground up. It start as a way to keep myself musically involved when it wasn’t possible to play with others, but has involved into another important thread in my work.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
there are too many people who have been an enormus influence on me and my development to write, but I’d like to shout out my friends, collaborators, and bandmates Erik Van Dam, Jim Robitaille, Jonathan Fagan, and Evan Palmer. These four are my closest friends and collaborators, and I feel incredibly blessed and lucky to have them in my life and to be able to create with them.

Website: https://johndaltonspheresofinfluence.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadheadbearman/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spheresofinfluenceinfo

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@johndaltonspheresofinfluence

Image Credits
outdoor photo with guitar- Mark Redmond Studio pictures- Bosse Studios Photo with trumpet player- Richard Pasley