John Cocuzzi was born at Andrews Air Force Base, just outside Washington, DC on October 26, 1964. He graduated from Springbrook High school in 1982, and went directly to Montgomery Junior College in Rockville, Maryland as an applied percussion major. In college he was fortunate to study arranging with Bill Potts. In a short time John established himself in the Washington, DC area on vibes, drums and piano.

For many years John performed at the 219 Restaraunt in historic Old Town Alexandria, Virginia every Tuesday and Wednesday night.  He currently has two shows running on the BET Jazz Network, The Jazz Central Show. Over the last ten years, festival performances include the Atlanta Jazz Party, the San Diego Swinging Jazz Festival, the West Texas Jazz Society, events for the New Jersey Jazz Society and many festivals in Holland and Belgium. During that time, John has performed with Bucky and John Pizzarelli, Russell Malone, Howard Alden, Warren and Allan Vaché, Ken Peplowski, Chuck Hedges, Bob Wilber, Ed Polcer, Snooky Young, Milt Hinton, Joe Ascione, Louis Bellson, Mark Shane, Johnny Varro, Dick Hyman and many others.

In the DC area, John has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Corcoran Art Gallery, the Smithsonian, the National Press Club, the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington DC's premier jazz club, Blues Alley. Since 1997, John has played piano in the nationally-renowned swing, jump and blues band, Big Joe and the Dynaflows, under the direction and leadership of Big Joe Maher.

These days, John is based out of Northern CA near Sacramento.