Lindberg was born in Royal Oak, Michigan. He began his professional career at the age of 16, eventually moving to New York City in 1977.^[1]

After moving to New York, he played with the Human Arts Ensemble alongside Joseph Bowie and Bobo Shaw.^[2] In 1977, with James Emery and Billy Bang, Lindberg co-founded the String Trio of New York.^[3] In 1980 he formed a trio with Jimmy Lyons and Sunny Murray. From 1980 to 1983 he lived in Paris, playing there solo and with Murray and John Tchicai.^[1] He has recorded extensively as a leader. John Lindberg studied bass with the bassist from the Battle Creek, Michigan symphony orchestra, bassist David Izenzon and jazz musician Roscoe Mitchell.

As leader edit

• Comin' and Goin (Leo, 1980)
• Unison (Cecma, 1981) with Marty Ehrlich
• Dimension 5 (Black Saint, 1981)
• Team Work (Cecma, 1982) - with Hugh Ragin
• Relative Reliability (West Wind, 1982)
• Give and Take (Black Saint, 1982)
• Haunt of the Unresolved (Nato, 1983)
• The East Side Suite (Sound Aspects. 1983)
• Trilogy of Works for Eleven Instrumentalists (Black Saint, 1984)
• As Tears Go By (ITM, 1987)
• Shoot First (Ear Rational, 1989) with Eric Watson
• Dodging Bullets (Black Saint, 1992)
• Quartet Afterstorm (Black Saint, 1994)
• Resurrection of a Dormant Soul (Black Saint, 1996)
• Luminosity:Homage to David Izenzon (Music & Arts, 1996)
• Bounce (Black Saint, 1998)
• The Catbird Sings (Black Saint, 2000)
• A Tree Frog Tonality (Between the lines, 2000)
• Two by Five (Between the lines, 2002)
• Ruminations Upon Ives and Gottschalk (Between the lines, 2003)
• Winter Birds (Between the lines, 2005)
• Duets 1 (Between the lines, 2006) with Karl Berger
• (A)live at Roulette, NYC (Jazzwerkstatt, 2011)
• Born in an Urban Ruin (Clean Feed, 2016) (& BC3)
• Western Edges (Clean Feed, 2016) (wRaptor Trio)

With the String Trio of New York

• First String (Black Saint, 1979)
• Area Code 212 (Black Saint, 1981)
• Common Goal (Black Saint, 1983)
• Rebirth of a Feeling (Black Saint, 1983)
• Natural Balance (Black Saint, 1986)
• Octagon (Black Saint, 1992)
• Blues...? (Black Saint, 1993)
• Frozen Ropes (Barking Hoop, 2005)

As sideman edit

With Anthony Braxton

• Creative Orchestra (Köln) 1978 (hatART, 1978 [1995])
• Performance (Quartet) 1979 (hatART, 1979 [1981])
• Seven Compositions 1978 (Moers Music, 1979)
• Six Duets (1982) (Cecma, 1982)
• Four Compositions (Quartet) 1983 (Black Saint, 1983)
• Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984 (Black Saint, 1984)
• Prag 1984 (Quartet Performance) (Sound Aspects, 1984)
• Orchestra (Paris) 1978 (Braxton Bootleg, 2011)
• Quartet (Wilhelmshaven) 1979 - Part 1 (Braxton Bootleg, 2012)
• Quartet (Wilhelmshaven) 1979 - Part 2 (Braxton Bootleg, 2012)
• Quartet (Mulhouse) 1983 (Braxton Bootleg, 2012)
• Quartet (Sweet Basil) 1985 - 02.11 (Braxton Bootleg, 2013)
• Quartet (Salzburg) 1985 - 05.19 (Braxton Bootleg, 2014)

With Human Arts Ensemble

• Junk Trap (Black Saint, 1978)
• Live! Volume 1 (Circle, 1978)

With Susie Ibarra

• Flower by Flower (Tzadik, 2002)

With Jimmy Lyons and Sunny Murray

• Jump Up / What to Do About (Hat Hut, 1981)

With Kevin Norton

• Intuitive Structures (Cadence, 2003)
• Time-Space Modulator (Barking Hoop, 2004)

With Wadada Leo Smith

• Lake Biwa (Tzadik, 2004)
• Eclipse (La Huit, 2005)
• Tabligh (Cuneiform, 2008)
• Spiritual Dimensions (Cuneiform, 2009)
• Heart's Reflections (Cuneiform, 2011)
• Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 2012)
• Occupy The World (TUM, 2013)
• The Great Lakes Suites (TUM, 2014)
• Celestial Weather (TUM, 2015)
• America's National Parks (Cuneiform, 2016)
• The Chicago Symphonies (TUM, 2021)

With BLOB

• "The Awakening" (2007) (with Ted Orr, Bill Bacon, Don Davis and Karl Berger)
• "Halloween" (Clinical Archives 2008) (with Ted Orr and Harvey Sorgen)
• "Quantum Fugue" (Lindy Editions 2008) (with Ted Orr and Harvey Sorgen)
• "Earphonious Swamphony" (Innova Recordings 2009) (with Ted Orr,Harvey Sorgen, and Ralph Carney)
• "You Can'y Get Ther From There" (Lindy Editions 2009) (with Ted Orr and Harvey Sorgen)
• "A Night At The Opera" (2010) (with Ted Orr, Jake Sorgen, and Harvey Sorgen)
• "Metalshop" (2010) (with Ted Orr and Harvey Sorgen)
• "BLOB Goes To Mars" (2011) (with Ted Orr, Harvey Sorgen, Don Davis, and Mars Williams)
• Third Ear" (2011) (with Ted Orr, Harvey Sorgen, and Curtis Bahn)
• "Summer Shorts" (2012) (with Ted Orr and Harvey Sorgen)

• John Lindberg at Discogs