John Michael Glyn Etheridge is an English jazz fusion guitarist, composer, bandleader and educator known for his eclecticism and broad range of associations in jazz, classical, and contemporary music. He is best known for his work with Soft Machine from 1975 to 1978, 1984 and 2004 to present.
Etheridge on stage in 2018
Etheridge (right) at the launch of the Stéphane Grappelli DVD "A Life in the Jazz Century", London, 2002, with Martin Taylor (left), Coleridge Goode (bass) and Jack Emblow (accordion)
Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive and jazz rock, becoming a purely instrumental band in 1971. The band has undergone many line-up changes, with musicians such as Andy Summers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Roy Babbington and Allan Holdsworth being members during the band's history. The current line-up consists of John Etheridge, Theo Travis, Fred Thelonious Baker and Asaf Sirkis.
Group circa 1970: l-r: Elton Dean, Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper
Ticket for a 1971 Soft Machine concert in the Deutschlandhalle, West Berlin, supported by Family, Yes and Man.
