NEWS
A very nice honor from my local Musician's Union!
Dear Fellow Local 14 Members:
Local14's Featured Member of the Month is Jon LeRoy.
Jon LeRoy was a late starter on piano at the age of 13. At 16, his first paying job was a Rock gig at a church, playing tunes by Styx, Chicago, The Doobie Brothers, Billy Joel, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles.
After graduating high school from Liverpool, NY, and getting a music degree through the SUNY system, Jon started playing professionally in the Syracuse, and North Country Areas. He was playing solo gigs and club dates while also working full time in music retail. Music retail brought Jon to the Capital District in 1994, and he was playing Jazz gigs, weddings, and other club work soon after he moved here.
Jon has performed with famous artists such as: Aretha Franklin, Mic Gillette, Ed Thigpen, Richie Cole, and more. He also toured with the Glenn Miller Orchestra (GMO), and while he was with them, he performed with the Ink Spots, and The Four Freshmen. He continues to sub with the GMO, occasionally.
In any given year, Jon performs with more than 30 artists/bands/churches/schools, as well as many solo gigs at restaurants, cocktail lounges, and weddings. He is, currently, church organist at Emmanuel Reformed Church in Castleton, on top of his other musical activities. In his spare time, Jon spends time with his wife, Rose, his son Jack, who is attending SCCC for computer programming, and his daughter Jessica, who is going to Roberts Wesleyan College for nursing.
Jon LeRoy is one of over 300 valued members of The Albany Musicians' Association.
‘Jazz on Tap’ event series to feature local jazz musicians
By Amanda Eke
The Daily Orange, May,2019
For the remaining weeks of May and June, “Jazz on Tap” will take place from 2-5 p.m. every other Sunday at Finger Lakes On Tap Brewpub, a restaurant in Skaneateles. The event features local jazz musicians as well as food and drinks.
Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation foresees that dozens of groups will be coming out during this event series and anticipates different groups weekly, said Larry Luttinger, executive director of the organization.
Luttinger described people’s affinity for jazz during the summer as one that is “environmental.”
“Jazz is definitely popular all year round and presented just as well,” he said. “However, during summer there is something so great about the outdoor aspect.”
One of the artists performing this year at the event is the Jon LeRoy Trio. The group is named after founding member, Jon LeRoy. LeRoy said he met his current drummer and bassist in 1997 when they worked in a sheet music store together. The three started playing professionally in 1999 in the Albany area.
Born and raised in Liverpool, LeRoy said he enjoys the atmosphere the Jazz on Tap event offers. He also extends his love for playing jazz in New York because of the diversity he finds in each area.
“Every area is so different. In Syracuse back in the day there were lots of places to play; clubs, steak houses,” he said. “I then played more in Albany. Albany has so many connecting areas, you can get over to different areas quickly.”
Another artist who will be performing at “Jazz on Tap” is Ronnie Leigh. As a one-man production with a career spanning five decades, Leigh sticks mainly to piano and vocals. Born in Albany, he began playing music as a kid listening to the vinyl records that family members played — including ones by artists like Miles Davis, and Nancy Wilson.
Leigh said he has traveled all over the United States and Canada performing music for more than 20 years, but he said he has no favorite place to perform. Leigh said things can change day by day on a personal and spiritual level, adding that he just loves to perform and engage with the audience.
“Nothing is better than just baring your soul on that stage,” he said.
Leigh has been coming to “Jazz On Tap” for the past three years and is looking forward to being there and seeing his fellow performers.
“Jazz is a freedom of expression; it represents trials and all sorts of things going on,” Leigh said, “jazz truly is a journey, it is very spiritual music. Where it came from, what it is doing today and how folks use it or abuse it … it means an awful lot. I try to speak truth to jazz music everyday.”
I was in Syracuse recently and got to hang out with some old friends. My buddy Steve Schad had this page out of the "Club Date" section of the Syracuse New Times. I wasn't in any of the bands, but I was on a bunch of Ronnie D's Tracks, and I did play at a lot of these venues back then. Thanks, Steve!
I am now available for private lessons, clinics, and group lessons.
jonleroy3@gmailcom
"I knew Jon from when I taught elementary band at LaFayette. At the time, I had no idea he was a top shelf musician who should have been making his living playing music exclusively! Will you tell him that I am so glad he is finally able to be doing that for me! And thank you for posting the pics and videos of his musical endeavors. The man is a monster musician and I feel honored to know him!! See you at some gig to come I'm sure! 🎼🎤"
Molly Milner
Molly was a customer of mine in Lafayette, NY, and now is a friend, as well as a fellow musician as she plays in a band of her own; Ontario!
JPL
Live in the Clubs: Jon LeRoy finds niche for organ trio
From a Brian McElhiney article in the Daily Gazette(Schenectady, 3/29/12) Syracuse native, jazz pianist and organist Jon LeRoy moved to the Capital Region in 1994 and began playing gigs here, he found himself swimming against the musical current.
“When I first moved to this area, everybody wanted me to sound like Bill Evans,” LeRoy said recently from a coffee shop in Schenectady.
“Everybody just wanted a piano player to sound like Bill Evans, and really my direction was a more Gene Harris, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, Red Garland-type playing. But people really wanted that more sensitive [thing] — I’m really not that kind of player.”
LeRoy has been playing piano most of his life, and first picked up left-handed bass technique on the organ while in college. By the time he had relocated to the Albany area, he had “come to grips” with using synthesizers and keyboards.
Forming a group
But he soon found his focus switching back to organ — not a common instrument in this area’s jazz scene, especially in a lead role. He formed his trio with drummer Ted MacKenzie and guitarist Mike Novakowski in 1999, and the unique setup helped to establish him as a mainstay on the local scene — as well as solve some other problems he had been having with band members.
“The other thing that happened was I started getting into arguments with bass players,” he said. “So it just kind of came together. And really the fact that there weren’t a lot of jazz groups that were jazz organ-led was another reason to do it. I just thought, jeez, nobody does it, nobody really even knows a lot of the literature — it would be a really good thing for the area.”
LeRoy, MacKenzie and Novakowski have managed to stick together, as the Jon LeRoy Trio, longer than most jazz bands, where the norm is often pickup musicians and shifting lineups. Although LeRoy is once again living in Syracuse, he still visits the Capital Region almost weekly for his day job with a music retailer, and has been playing out in the area again.
"I’ve been really lucky," he said. "Ted is a phenomenal drummer, Mike is a top-notch guitar player."
The trio’s next gig is at longtime haunt 9 Maple Avenue on Saturday night. The venue was one of the first that the band played after forming, after an invitation from club-owner Judy Sirianni.
"When I put the jazz organ trio together, the interesting thing was I think at first, her response was, 'A trio?'"LeRoy said "That’s kind of small; is that going to work — you know? And I said, ‘No, I think it’s going to work.’ And right after, the first weekend we were there went over really well."
The band’s repertoire covers standards from jazz organists such as Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith and LeRoy’s biggest influence, Joey DeFrancesco, as well as less obvious songs from Art Blakey and John Coltrane. The band has been known to pull off bass-less renditions of Jaco Pastorius, and they recently added a Michael Jackson song to their set.
"Jaco was a really good keyboard player; he really could play. So a lot of his stuff is actually very pianistic and very keyboard-sounding, so it really lays under the fingers very easily." LeRoy said."