Jon Cleary will be touring the UK during the first weekend in April at the end of July 2008 and interested venue owners/promoters can contact us about his availability via e-mail or 01209 860067.

For European booking (outside the UK and Ireland) please contact Andy Loesche at Concert Buero.

Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen's gig at the Exeter Phoenix on the 5th April is to be recorded by BBC Radio 2's Paul Jones Show for broadcast in July in support of his next tour. Click here for info on the Exeter Phoenix.

Jon Cleary is a triple treat—with a salty-sweet voice, masterful piano skills, and a knack for coupling infectious grooves with melodic hooks and sharp lyrics. He balances a career performing with his band The Absolute Monster Gentlemen and Bonnie Raitt, recording with both groups, and composing songs for various artists. His live shows are an explosive funk party mixing old school soul with the rhythms of New Orleans. Cleary has produced 4 recordings over the past 10 years including Pin Your Spin (2004 Basin Street Records), Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen (2002 Basin Street Records), Moonburn (1999 Virgin/Point Blank), and Alligator Lips & Dirty Rice (1994 Ace Records).

While Cleary is the prime motivator throughout, his Absolute Monster Gentlemen band does their fair share of the work to bring Cleary’s musical vision to life in concert. “They work together very powerfully,” Cleary says emphatically. “There’s a very high standard of technical musicianship, but the key thing is that they also play with a lot of soul and spirit. These guys dig in and play with a lot of passion, and I think it’s that intangible element that seems to successfully move audiences everywhere we play. “One night, on my way home from a gig, I stumbled across the Friendly Travelers—a gospel band—playing for tips in a coffee bar. I dug them, and went back to their gigs many times, sitting in sometimes, and ultimately we became friends. In 1994, Cleary was invited perform for the first time at the famed New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Instead of hiring all-star session musicians, he decided to try hiring guitarist Derwin “Big D” Perkins and bassist Cornell C. Williams, of the Friendly Travelers. “I called them, and they said, ‘What took you so long? Of course we want to do it!’” Adding drummer Jeffrey “Jellybean” Alexander, whom the Friendly Travelers knew from working on Bourbon Street, the band was born. On this tour, The Monster Gents will be joined by drummers Terence Higgins of The Dirty Dozen Brass Band (July 19- August 5) and Jamal Batiste, of Los Hombres Calientes (August 9-14).

Born in Kent, England, Cleary has educated himself in the musical culture and life of New Orleans for the past 20 years steeped in the sounds of the Caribbean from Cuba to Haiti and beyond. His deft piano style and unmistakable vocals are heard on recordings by Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, B.B. King, Ryan Adams, and Eric Burdon. Cleary’s original compositions have been recorded by Taj Mahal on Phantom Blues, and Bonnie Raitt’s most recent albums Souls Alike and Silver Lining. Cleary does double duty performing as full-time keyboardist for Grammy Winner Bonnie Raitt when not touring with his the Absolute Monster Gentlemen.

"Jon Cleary is the ninth wonder in the world." - Bonnie Raitt

"Cleary can be an absolute monster on his own, but Cleary’s full combo R&B is as broad, deep and roiling as the Mississippi river, the combined swinging product of local keyboard tradition, Cleary’s vocal-songwriting flair for moody Seventies soul and the spunky-Meters roll of his Gentlemen." - David Fricke "Pin Your Spin" Review Rolling Stone - April 21, 2004

“I haven’t heard anybody close to having absorbed so much funk and so many subtleties of the different genius piano players and guitar players and rhythms of New Orleans.” - Jazziz Magazine 2002

Cleary plays piano as if he's revving up an engine and sings as if a line drawing of his behatted self were next to "soul" in Webster's. - The Washington Post June 15, 2005 -- Pamela Murray Winters

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