John Mayer was one of those multiple-threat music talents that made most other players' lives and career paths seem simple. Born in India, to Anglo-Indian parents, he studied classical music and had a successful career as an orchestral violinist, but gave it up to work as a composer and, later, in jazz fusion as a composer-violinist-band leader. From the mid-1960's onward, he made his mark in the fields of jazz, progressive rock, and world music.