J Dog Studio

Specialties

J Dog Studio accomodates recording projects large and small. From piano/​vocal duos to complete rhythm sections accompanying vocals and horns, acoustically recorded music sounds terrific here!

John Simon is an accomplished pianist fluent in all styles of music: Jazz, Classical, Musical Theater, R&B, Rock and more

Music production for film and soundtracks

Music lessons: piano, theory & composition

History

Established in 1997.

J Dog Studio was started in a coverted garage in Sonoma, CA in 1997. In 2000, a Yamaha C7 concert grand piano was acquired. In 2010, the studio was moved to Sebastopol, CA. The studio now occupies a custom designed building with 4 isolation booths and 24 separate mic inputs running state of the art software.

John has taught private piano lessons since 1970 and taught jazz piano for 7 years at Sonoma State University, and continues teaching at the Santa Rosa Junior College.

Meet the Business Owner

John S.

Business Owner

John Simon was born in Philadelphia, PA, where he has studied piano since the age of 8. He received both a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Music Composition at the Ester Boyer College of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia. John studied classical piano performance with Sophia Melvin and composition with Clifford Taylor, Robert Morgan and Paul Epstein. He founded the Temple University Electronic Music Studio, where he taught Electronic Music. In 1982, John moved to Ukiah, California, where he formed the jazz fusion group Synaps from 1982 through 1987. John is well known as a preferred accompanist for many vocalists and instrumentalists in the Bay Area. He has appeared with David Sanborn, Little Anthony, Spirogyra, The Coasters, The Drifters and more. He taught jazz piano at Sonoma State University for 7 years and continues his 8^th year at Santa Rosa Jr. College. He has been the musical director for productions of «A Chorus Line», «Pippin», «Godspell» and more.