He has released two albums of his own compositions—The Eye of Gordon and Displaced and has composed for many projects, including Heard By Others, a duo project with Lenny Pickett, Believers a trio with Brad Shepik and Sam Minaie, the Electronic music group Earspeak, as well as the feature-length documentary After Spring. In 2019 he composed and performed in Apologue 2047, a multimedia performance art piece directed by Zhang Yimou which explored themes of the relationships of humans and technology. 

His release For James features Ron Blake on saxophones and is dedicated to James Baldwin and incorporates samples of his speeches. John’s ability to cross genres has allowed him to appear with a broad range of artists such as Kinan Azmeh’s City Band, Nguyen Le’s STREAMS Quartet, the Saturday Night Live Band on NBC, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Silk Road Ensemble. He has collaborated on more than 100 recordings, including the GRAMMY award winner Yo-Yo Ma and Friends, Songs of Joy and Peace. Most recently he can be heard playing percussion on the movie soundtracks of Joker and Gemini Man.

He will release John Hadfield's Paris Quartet on Outnote Records in 2022.