Harle was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. Following his education at the Royal College of Music in London and, as a French Government Music Scholar, in Paris with Daniel Deffayet, he won the Amcon Award of The American Concert Artists Guild. In his early years, he was a member of the band of composer Michael Nyman and orchestrator for film composer Stanley Myers, expanding from that into scoring for film and television. In the 1990s, he began a career as saxophonist and composer, both artistically and commercially.

Harle composed the theme tune and music for the BBC TV series Silent Witness.^[2] In May 1998, Harle was the castaway on BBC Radio 4's long-running Desert Island Discs programme, with the BBC describing him as "the most-recorded saxophonist in the world".^[3]

Harle served as artistic advisor to Paul McCartney for six years, and has collaborated with Elvis Costello, Herbie Hancock and Elmer Bernstein.^{[citation needed]}

In addition to his own prolific recording, Harle has contributed directly or indirectly to a number of charting songs and albums by others.^[4] A jingle he wrote for Nissan in 1993 became the basis of a charting pop single by Jazzie B.^{[clarification needed]} His album Terror and Magnificence (1996) featured Elvis Costello, Sarah Leonard and Andy Sheppard. He contributed to the charting album Standing Stone (1997) by Paul McCartney.^{[citation needed]}

Harle has also been an educator, serving at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London in the late 1980s as a professor of Saxophone and Chamber Music.^[4] He is currently Professor of Saxophone at the Guildhall School.^[5]

In 2012, the Royal Television Society awarded Harle its "Music: Original Score" award for his composition for BBC 2's programme Lucian Freud: Painted Life, describing it as "An excellent, challenging and original score that perfectly complements Freud's powerful imagery".^[6] It also won the 2013 British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) Ivor Novello Award for "Best Television Soundtrack".^[7]

In October 2013, on BBC Radio 3's In Tune programme, Harle talked about his recently released album Art Music, the composition of which was inspired by his favourite paintings.^[8]

Harle appeared with Marc Almond on BBC Radio 4's Front Row in February 2014 to discuss their collaborative work about Gothic London, The Tyburn Tree (Dark London).^[9] Harle was a guest on the same programme in November of that year, to mark the bicentenary of the birth of Adolphe Sax by assessing the contribution of Sax's invention, the saxophone.^[10]

Harle has written a reference book, The Saxophone: The Art and Science of Playing and Performing, published in May 2017.^[11]

Harle has two sons: writer and curator Matthew Harle, and Mad Decent composer and producer Danny L Harle.^[1]

• Official website  
• John Harle's homepage at Chester Music