Background
His father was a studio musician and his mother a blues singer.
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Mike Elliott
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Education
Elliott born in Chicago and was raised in Colorado and where he later studied guitar with Johnny Smith.
Career
Mike Elliott was an American jazz guitarist. He learned guitar at a young age and was playing professionally by the time he was 16. He had formed his own Jazz group and in 1964 he was on the road.
He moved to Minneapolis in 1966 and in the seventies he had helped found the jazz fusion group Natural Life whose members included saxophonist Bob Rockwell, bassist Billy Peterson, pianist Bobby Peterson and drummers Bill Berg and Eric Kamau Gravatt.
His long career included periods in the Twin Cities, where he played and recorded with Natural Life releasing an album with them titled Unnamed Land and in Nashville, where he had various roles as studio musician, producer/engineer and songwriter on hit country recordings. He was also with the Minnesota Orchestra and the as featured soloist with the Toronto Symphony.
In the period of the 1980s to the 1990s, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and became manager of Gibson Professional Musical Services. He held clinics with Les Paul, Howard Roberts and Elliot Easton et cetera
His other roles included session work, engineering, producing, arranging and songwriting.
He remained in Nashville until 1998. Other artists he worked with were Earl Klugh, Vic Damone, Steve Earle, Crystal Gayle, Tennessee Ernie Ford and more. He also co wrote a song that appeared on John Anderson"s triple-platinum selling album Seminole Wind.
He died on September 14, 2005 after being seriously ill following a heart attack.
There is now a Mike Elliott scholarship award for excellence in guitar.
