Born in Missouri, Hadfield began to play the drums as a child.[1] He studied music as an undergraduate student at University of Nevada, Las Vegas before earning a Master’s degree at the University of Missouri, Kansas City Conservatory. He then settled in New York[2] where he has been performing and composing for a variety of genres, in particular Jazz, world music, and classical and contemporary music.[3] Hadfield currently teaches at NYU’s Jazz studies department.[4]
Hadfield released four albums of his own compositions, Drum of Stories (2023) John Hadfield’s Paris Quartet (2022), The Eye of Gordon (2008), and Displaced (2010).[12]Paris Quartet, was hailed by one of the leading Belgian daily newspapers, Le Soir, as "very successful, the musicians are in perfect osmosis, the Rhodes developing its atmospheres, the sax its volutes, the percussion its rhythms, the base its counterpoints. Everything lands exactly at the right place. And the listener is happy."[13]
Hadfield has composed for many projects, including Heard by Others, a duo with Lenny Pickett,[14]For James, a collaboration with Ron Blake,[6]Believers, a trio with Brad Shepik and Sam Minaie,[15] the electronic group Earspeak with Boris Skalsky,[16] as well as the feature-length documentary After Spring.[17] In 2017, reviewing Petros Klampanis' Chroma, Downbeat wrote, "Drummer John Hadfield is an ideal purveyor of Klampanis’ vision. Using a hybrid kit of traditional drumkit pieces and mounted percussion, he spurs on the ensemble with sensitive, yet infectiously grooving layers."[18] In 2021, reviewing the Believers’ album, All About Jazz wrote, “Hadfield's contributions belong among the more rhythmically engaging cuts of the spectrum. First ostinato-based, then loudly improvised, "Seven Crotales" unveils groovy bass lines and spacey guitar work which is elaborated on again later, throughout "Nomadic Days.”[15] The same year, French Jazz website Citizen Jazz published a review of Hadfield’s single For James honoring James Baldwin, poetically noting that he “deployed a clever and joyful beat, . . . a dew of happiness.”[6]
Hadfield has also been heard playing drum and percussion on various TV shows and movies, including Saturday Night Live, P.O.V (TV Series documentary), The Light in Her Eyes, and Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood.[citation needed][19]
