ABOUT ME

I am originally from Wales, but somehow I always knew I would end up in California. I started playing the saxophone when I was 11 years of age because I thought it might get me girls and I ended up really loving it. I got involved with Jazz early on and found that this was a solid foundation for understanding many more genres of music. I went to Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts to get my music degree and after college I toured Europe, the US and Japan and played nearly every major festival in the UK as well as opening for people such as GOLDIE, THE EGG, BREAKBEAT ERA and GIL SCOTT HERON during the early 2000s. I was also part of the bands for PART TIME HEROES and THE NEXTMEN (with whom I wrote and sang the tune ROCKETS which has now had over 5.5 million streams on Spotify at time of writing) I was one of the first people in Europe to play saxophone with House music DJs and found that I was mostly interested in music that made people dance. This is the music I wanted to create. With the realization that the saxophone is not really a songwriting tool, I taught myself guitar and piano and I used my understanding of music theory to help me form bands and a unique solo show where I can pretty much incorporate all of my skills at once. I now consider myself a singer/songwriter first and foremost but I am consistently involved with a wide range of projects as well as my own band - THE JONNY TARR QUINTET. Since moving to the United States, I have been lucky enough to open for such legendary acts as THE VICTOR WOOTEN TRIO, OZOMATLI and THE FAMILY STONE, plus share the stage with Billy Gibbons of ZZ TOP, multi grammy award winning BEBE WINANS and I have written and recorded with MARIO CALDATTO JNR. the legendary producer of The Beastie Boys. I even got to be part of the opening act, THE PINK FLOYD EXPERIENCE for FOREIGNER’s Cold As Ice tour in 2019. I also recently won my second SAN DIEGO MUSIC AWARD for BEST POP ARTIST 2023 and headlined the NAMM show’s D’Angelico Stage with my Quintet. I just released my second studio album for San Diego’s PACIFIC RECORDS titled THE RULES and was just named as an OFFICIAL TAYLOR GUTARS ARTIST.