John Duarte was born on October the 2nd 1919 in Sheffield. He was one hundred percent English despite the name. His father was Scottish and his mother English. He received his musical education at Manchester Central High School(1931-1935) and Manchester University Faculty of Technology (1936-1940). He worked as a professional chemist until 1969, then abandoned chemistry in favor of full-time music. The only formal musical education he received was lessons with Terence Usher (1934-1936) in jazz-guitar playing; the rest was by self-instruction. He also studied double bass and ttrumpet for a while and worked professionally as a jazz musician until 1953. He has been great friends with Andres Se...