WASHINGTON (AFP) ― One of the most crucial abilities of any jazz musician is to improvise, and that is exactly what John Britton has done ― not just onstage ― but throughout his life.
Britton was born with all 10 of his fingers cut off below the first knuckle after the umbilical cord wrapped around his hands.
He was also born into a musical family in Odenton, Maryland, just outside of Washington. All four of his brothers and sisters play instruments or sing, and rather than opting out of music because of his drastically shortened fingers, Britton decided to improvise with the hands he did have.
While his siblings first sat down to play the piano when they were five years old, Britton started lessons two years earlier at the age of three in order to compensate for the increased difficulties he faced as his small digits traveled along the keys.
And when as a teenager Britton realized that because of his shortened reach he would never be able to play the piano at the advanced level he wanted to achieve, he set his sights instead on the trumpet, where he says his shortened fingers translated into an edge rather than a handicap.
“With trumpet players, a lot of times you have a third grader or fifth grader and they don’t want to bend their fingers. And with me, I don’t have an extra knuckle to bend,” says Britton, wiggling his fingers as if pressing a trumpet’s valves.
“Because there’s actually less movement with my fingers going up and down, I can play faster and a lot easier.”
Britton credits his ability to always see the silver lining to his family’s positive attitude toward his hands. There were never pity parties at the Britton house ― just jam sessions and light-hearted jokes.
Growing up, for a laugh Britton would tell new friends that his fingers were cut off because when he was younger, his older brother Ben stuck his fingers in the electric garbage disposal machine, he says now years later, chuckling.
His brother Ben has always been a big influence on the younger Britton, especially when it comes to music.
“I always sort of followed in his footsteps,” says Britton of his 28-year-old brother. “He got into jazz, so I got into jazz.”
Their mutual love of jazz has lasted into adulthood. Though he now lives in Rochester, New York, Britton travels back to the Washington-area often to visit his family.
On the visits, he takes the opportunity to guest star during late-night gigs with his brother’s band, Ben Britton’s Unconventional Riot.
Onstage at Twins Jazz Club in Washington, Britton’s thin, 24-year-old frame is illuminated by an overhead spotlight that shines down on his sandy blonde hair and reflects off his black-rimmed eyeglasses.
Britton’s brother plays the jazz saxophone and their sister, Christina, provides the voice track to a song Ben Britton wrote for his latest album.
The younger Britton most often plays with his own band in Rochester, the John Britton Quartet, but in Washington the stage becomes just another family living room when the siblings are in town and able to perform together.
Britton compares playing live music to meditating and says the best performances are the ones he doesn’t remember.
“I think anyone who has a problem, however you look at it, you can see it in a positive light,” he says. “When you’re on stage everything’s amplified like ten times. So if you see it in a positive light, it’s viewed ten times more positive.”
His fingers don’t make him self-conscious onstage he adds, but rather serve as a good conversation starter. Because in jazz, the musician always interprets music in his own style.
