Biography

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Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen Description
Produced by John Porter. Featuring special guest: Bonnie Raitt.

“The sexiest, most excruciatingly funky blues groove imaginable. What a band!” – Joseph Blake, Times-Colonist (Victoria, BC)

“This self-titled disc is extraordinary in scope.” – Stamford Advocate
#1 Louisiana CD of 2002 – Gambit Weekly

Top 10 CDs of 2002 – OffBEAT Magazine
Album of the Year – OffBEAT Best of the Beat
Album of the Year – Gambit‘ Big Easy Entertainment Award


Track Listing
1. Sometimes I Wonder
2. Cheating on You
3. More Hipper
4. Just Kissed My Baby
5. When You Get Back
6. Take My Love
7. A Little Satisfaction
8. Been and Gone
9. So Damn Good
10. Fanning The Flames
11. Too Damn Hot


Personnel
Jon Cleary - Piano and Lead Vocals, Acoustic Fretless Bass, Dobro and Mandolin on "Been and Gone" and additionaly guitars on "Fanning the Flames" and "Too Damn Hot" Jon Also plays Wurlitzer, B-3 and funky wah-wah Clavinet

The Absolute Monster Gentlemen:
Jeffrey 'Jellybean' Alexander - Drums and Vocals
Derwin 'Big D' Perkins - Guitar and Vocals
Cornell C. Williams - Bass and Vocals

Additional Musicians:
Lenny Castro - Percussion
Tuba Fats - Tuba on 'Fanning the Flames'
Robert Harrison - Trombone on 'Fanning the Flames'
Duke Heitger - Trumpet on "Fanning the Flames" and "Been and Gone"
Craig Klein - Trombone and Tuba on "Been and Gone"
Bonnie Raitt - Slide Guitar and Vocals on "Just Kissed My Baby" and Background Vocals on "Been and Gone"

Credits
Produced by John Porter
Executive Producer: Mark Samuels

Engineer and digital editing, overdubs and mix by John Porter.
Production assistants: Henry and Daisy. Additional production and digital editing by Jon Cleary. Tracking engineer Marty Horenburg, 2nd engineer Darren Mora. Mastered by Stephen Marcussen, digitally edited by Stewart Whitmore for Marcussen Mastering, Hollywood, California.
Recorded at Sir Ronald Puddings Emporium of Groove, Los Angeles, and Lucy Lou's Palace of Fonk, French Quarter, New Orleans.
Photographs by Seth Mortensen.
Album Design by harry@villiersbrothers.com

Dedicated along with fresh pint of Guinness to Sweet Dolly Daydream, Tilly, Toish, Dangerous Don, Stu and Dom

Jon Cleary Thanks: I'd like to give special thanks to John Porter for all his hard work above and beyond the call of duty and for all his help in the past, couldn't have made this record without you mate. Bonnie, thanks for throwing the extra cayenne into the boil, you're a sweetheart. Additional thanks to Mark Samuels and Basin Street Records, Crixie for taking care of business at FHQ, Cindy Voohies for legal representation, Mike Kohn for looking after the Monster Gents on the road, Rick Farman and Paul Peck at Superfly, Linda and the girls, Ron Black, Candace Stewart, Jeff Treffinger, Lucy and Gregory, David Hirschland at Bug Music, Paul Goldman at Monterey, Ron Stone, Kathy Kane, Johnny Lee Schell, Jim Mona at RSPE, Mark Jefferys at Digidesign, Erik Hansen at Roland, Ted Burger at Korg, Tim Goodwin at Line Six, Diana Thornton, Paul Siegel, Harry Shearer and The Berts, and The Funk Captain. "Game on chav!"

TourDates

Jon Cleary Bio
Jon Cleary’s love and affinity for New Orleans music goes back to the rural British village of Cranbrook, Kent, where he was raised in a musical family. Cleary’s maternal grandparents performed under the respective stage names Sweet Dolly Daydream and Frank Neville, ‘The Little Fellow With The Educated Feet’ – she as a singer, and he as a tap dancer. His father was a 50’s skiffle man and taught him the rudiments as soon as he was big enough to reach around the neck of his guitar. Upon attaining double-digit age Cleary became avidly interested in funk-filled music, buying records and intently studying their labels and album covers in order to glean as much information as possible. Such perusal revealed that three songs he especially loved — LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade,” Robert Palmer’s version of “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley” and Frankie Miller’s rendition of “Brickyard Blues” – were attributed to Allen Toussaint as either the songwriter, the producer, or both. Cleary’s knowledge expanded significantly when his Uncle, musician Johnny Johnson returned from a sojourn in New Orleans in the early 70’s and brought back two suitcases of rare and obscure local 45s, which allowed the adolescent Cleary to pursue his study of R&B in great depth, with special attention to the New Orleans sound that increasingly captivated him.

As soon as he was old enough to leave school in 1980 Cleary took off for the Crescent City. When his flight touched down a taxi took him straight to the Maple Leaf, a funky Uptown bar which then featured such New Orleans piano legends as Roosevelt Sykes and James Booker. Cleary got a job painting the club, and lived a few doors down for a time, allowing him unlimited free access to all the great New Orleans music performed within. One night when James Booker didn’t show up, the club’s manager insisted that Jon get up and play before the paying customers demanded a refund. Thrust suddenly into the spotlight Jon was ready, willing and able to play his first paying gig in New Orleans – and although he had come to town as a guitarist, this debut was also the first step of his career as a pianist.

Soon Cleary reached the existential crossroads of either devoting his life to the city’s music, or returning to England. Cleary chose New Orleans, and before long he began to land sideman gigs with the venerable likes of such New Orleans R&B legends (and his childhood heroes) as guitarists Snooks Eaglin, and Earl “Trick Bag” King, and singers Johnny Adams, and Jessie Hill.

By 1989, Cleary had recorded his first album of eight including the new GoGo Juice. His increasingly high-profile performances revealed a level of proficient versatility that led to recording sessions and international touring work – in an appropriately wide stylistic range – in the bands of Taj Mahal, John Scofield, Dr. John and, most notably, Bonnie Raitt. As a songwriter, he has written and co-written songs with and for Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal and the decade that he spent working with Raitt inspired her to unabashedly dub Cleary “the ninth wonder of the world.”

Jon Cleary left Bonnie Raitt’s band in 2009 to concentrate on his own music. And now, 35 years since he arrived in New Orleans, Cleary has made an eloquent, definitive and future-classic artistic statement. “Funk is the ethnic folk music of New Orleans,” Cleary says, "and I wanted to infuse GoGo Juice with a sound that was true to the city I love. It's the kind of record that could only be made in New Orleans."