Singer and keyboard player John Fluker was born and raised in Lansing, MI. He began taking piano lessons at eight and first encountered vocal music with his church choir. He attended the University of Michigan, graduating with a B.A. in music theory. After college, he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked in churches and as a vocal coach. (Eventually, his clients included Jennifer Lopez.) He began finding work as a backup musician to touring acts starting with the Diamonds, and he started to get session work as a background singer and keyboard player. In these capacities, he worked with Oleta Adams, Hinton Battle, Regina Belle, Boyz II Men, Whoopi Goldberg, Sam Harris, David Hasselhoff, Stephanie Mills, Queen Latifah, Brenda Russell, Mavis Staples, and Dionne Warwick. A major break came when he was hired as Gladys Knight's accompanist and musical director, a job that led to numerous television appearances and recording sessions. He was featured prominently on Knight's 2005 gospel album, One Voice, performing a duet with her on "Did You Know" and co-writing "He Shines on Me." Fluker took his music in a new direction by recording his solo debut album, The Sound of Peace, as a collection of keyboard instrumentals. The disc was released by Retribution Records on May 1, 2006. Fluker followed with a holiday collection, J Is for Joy, later in the year. ~ William Ruhlmann