John Bruschini is known for his ability to traverse genres and for being the only guitarist who carved his own niche within Cecil Taylor’s ensembles. Bruschini’s approach to composing and performing is imaginative, adventurous and daring, spanning primarily blues, rock, jazz, fusion, world music and contemporary classical music.
He has performed with a wide variety of artists including Mose Allison, Jay Anderson, Ray Anderson, Newman T. Baker, Michael Bisio, Dennis Charles, Dave Douglas, Barry Guy, Craig Harris, Michelle Hendricks, Dennis Irwin, Dave Kikoski, Elisabeth Kontomanou, Boris Kozlov, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Butch Morris, Wilber Morris, William Parker, Charles Persip and Warren Smith.
Bruschini deepened his musical identity as part of the downtown music scene in NYC during the '80s. He formed ensembles, mostly trios, with musicians such as Wilber Morris, Gregory Jones, Kenny Tyler, Boris Kozlov, Dominic Duval and Jay Rosen. Bruschini worked with a wide range of ensembles including The Makanda Ken McIntyre Orchestra, The Twelve Tone Funk Orchestra, Craig Harris’ James Brown tribute band, Cold Sweat, and The Paul Aston Group featuring Guillerme Franco, Steve Sacks, Alan Simon and Frank Colon.
John's As You Were CD was released in 2000, Portals came out in 2008 along with a track in the Mahavishnu Re-Defined CD--A Tribute to John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra (ESC Records).
In 2018, John performed at Roulette (NYC) in The Sound Vision Orchestra as one of the contributing ensembles for the Cecil Taylor Memorial Concert.
An avant-garde trio CD, Manix was released in late 2022 featuring Bruschini (guitar and bass), Chris Bowman (drums and percussion) and John Mulkerin (trumpet). In January 2023, John released his solo guitar CD, Cecil Ensorcelled--a tribute to Cecil Taylor.
Bruschini was included in Scott Yanow’s book, The Great Jazz Guitarists and in Jazzing - New York City's Unseen Scene by Thomas H. Greenland. John also contributed an essay to Practicing Music - How the Professionals Do It by Brian Willson and Morris Lang (editors/authors).
Bruschini's current projects include a new trio CD with Chris Bowman and John Mulkerin called Sedition- -digital launch on October 12, 2026. And John's essay in Peter Valente's new book, The World of Cecil Taylor, comes out on November 1, 2026. Rehearsals, recordings and performances held at his Downtown Earth
Studio in Kingston, NY are ongoing.
