New Orleans piano player and songwriter Jon Cleary is widely regarded as one of great heirs to the city’s world-changing music heritage – an outsider from Kent, England who has improbably become a beloved personality in his adopted hometown. From a young age, Cleary’s love for the city was insatiable, with the records of Earl King and Snooks Eaglin constantly on his mind. The day after he graduated high school, he hopped on a plane to NOLA with nothing but the phone number for the historic Maple Leaf Bar to chase his dream. Fast-forward: NPR calls him “pure New Orleans,” and he’s made the city proud with his 2016 GRAMMY Award for his last album ‘GoGo Juice’. Jon Cleary has not only ascended into the pantheon of New Orleans musical greats, but established a contemporary groove and a style that’s unmistakably his own.
“an Englishman who long ago unlocked honorary status as a Crescent City son” NPR/WBGO
After winning his first GRAMMY and constantly touring across the world, Cleary returns with his ten-song LP ‘Dyna-Mite’ out July 13 on Thirty Tigers. Cleary’s fingerprints are omnipresent throughout with his hip-shaking piano that blends together a diversity of moods and textures. The R&B/funk/soul-imbued movable feast epitomizes his moniker of multi-instrumentalist, too. Cleary wrote every song on the album and co-wrote “21st Century Gypsy Singing Lover Man” with Taj Mahal, all of which display his mastery of his craft regardless of what instrument he’s playing. “I’m a jack of all trades, and a master of none,” says Cleary with his understated English humility. To complete this picture, he turned to his talented group of local musicians to round out the roots and emotion of ‘Dyna-Mite’. Cleary says, “In New Orleans, you have to keep it real.”
You can have a sneaky peak of the single ‘Dyna-mite’ here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJyskDspkYI&feature=youtu.be
