Best known for his flute work on albums by his brother Steve Hackett (Genesis), John Hackett is a flute player with both a classical and rock music background, recognisable as possessing a distinctive sound within the world of progressive rock.
John studied music at Sheffield University during the 70’s and gained a diploma from the Guildhall in his 20’s. Alongside his academic career in music, John began his recording career by playing on Steve’s first solo album Voyage of the Acolyte. He went on to play on another of his brother’s albums Please Don’t Touch and also recorded sessions for the original Genesis guitarist, Anthony Phillips. After attaining his degree, John toured extensively with Steve including acoustic tours of guitar and flute. This led later to the formation of the Steve Hackett Acoustic Trio which toured Europe, Japan and the USA with John playing concert and alto flute.
In between and post tours John continued to develop his classical technique. In London during the 80’s he played for countless shows, helped form an orchestra (The Westminster Camerata) performing solo works by Mozart and Bach, and played for the Crouch End Festival Chorus. He also joined the English Flute Quartet who played at the Purcell Room as well as various music festivals. At this time his compositions and playing were also used in several theme tunes for BBC Radio as a member of the group Symbiosis (which he is still a part of today).
“I love working in different styles of music. I’m just as at home playing a Bach sonata as I am on stage with my prog rock band… the advantage of modern technology is I can work in my home studio and take all the time I need to get to know the song and figure out how to make the flute blend with the rest of the track.”
