Bio
I’ve been playing flute for most of my gigging life, and it was the doorway to my first studio recording opportunities when I arrived in Austin as a 17-year old. At that time flute solos were heard not only in Latin Jazz, but on a number of Rock and Pop radio hit songs. I’ve played flute with countless bands over the years, notably for 40 years with Austin Music Hall of Fame honorees Beto and the Fairlanes.
Dr. John Mills is Professor of Jazz Studies at The University of Texas at Austin - Butler School of Music, and has enjoyed a long career as a composer/arranger and recording saxophonist across a wide spectrum of jazz and other musical genres.
John has performed in concert with such jazz luminaries as Maria Schneider, Kenny Wheeler, Carla Bley, and Steve Swallow, R&B icons including Jimmie Vaughan, Dr. John, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin, and such popular music stars as Paul Simon, James Taylor, Lyle Lovett, and Bonnie Raitt. He has also scored orchestral arrangements for such diverse artists as Asleep at the Wheel, Rosanne Cash, Indigo Girls, and David Byrne.
Mills has appeared on ten Austin City Limits PBS television broadcasts over the years, including performances with such Texas legends as Ray Benson, Willie Nelson, and Lyle Lovett, and composed the opening theme for one of that popular series’ early seasons. He contributed arrangements to Grammy-nominated Contemporary Blues recordings by Jimmie Vaughan (2020) and Ruthie Foster (2021).
John has produced and recorded three CDs for Fable Records under his own name: Caffeine Dreams, Invisible Designs, and Flying Blind, all of which feature exclusively his original compositions. He was awarded First Prize in the 2008 ArtEZ Jazz Composition in the Netherlands, ISJAC’s 2019 SONIC Award for Best Big Band Composition, and Third Prize in the 2019 Enno Linnovalli Jazz Composition Contest in Helsinki, Finland.
John Mills is also a long-time baritone saxophonist and songwriter for The Texas Horns, who have recorded on numerous acclaimed recordings in the blues genre, and has appeared at major festivals coast to coast in the U.S as well as in Canada and Europe. He and his fellow members of The Texas Horns were named 2020 Horn Players of the Year by Living Blues Magazine.
Dr. Mills has given masterclasses in countries including Italy, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Slovenia, Canada, Guatemala, and Chile, and has presented his analysis and music and the national conferences of JEN, IAJE, and ISJAC.