Jon Cleary

New Orleans’ Jon Cleary is a triple threat—with a salty-sweet voice, masterful piano skills, and a knack for stacking infectious grooves with melodic hooks and sharp lyrics. All of his talents are manifest on Pin Your Spin, his tough new Basin Street Records release. Backed by his Absolute Monster Gentlemen band, Cleary delivers a dozen original songs with cool conviction and expertise, and reminds us that soul can be spoken in a variety of dialects. Tight-and-right funk ("Got to Be More Careful," "Funky Munky Biznis"), sophisticated balladry ("Smile in a While," "Is It Any Wonder"), and Big Easy-via-Cuba piano ("Oh No No No," "King Zulu Strut")—all of these seem to be Cleary’s native tongue. Cleary is a prolific writer, and he considered two- or three-dozen songs while he was assembling material for Pin Your Spin. He is as particular as he prolific, though, and he always strives to get his songs in top shape before bringing them into the studio. "I had a bunch of contenders for this record," Cleary says, "some old and some new, in various stages of completion. With some of the songs, it was a matter of working on the lyrics. With others—like ‘Best Ain’t Good Enough’—it was a question of finding an arrangement that suited the song and suited the record as a whole." Because Cleary is a busy musician—balancing time between fronting his own band and touring internationally as a key member of Bonnie Raitt’s band — putting the finishing touches on all of the songs was a real challenge. "In order to satisfactorily complete the lyrics to certain tunes, I’d sometimes have to wear my lyricist’s hat to the detriment of my arranger’s hat, or my piano player’s hat, or my producer’s hat." Ultimately, he whittled his big batch of songs down to the 12 gems that comprise Pin Your Spin. "The others," he says, "will sit on the back burner for the time being, until I can properly dedicate myself to getting them right." If setting such high musical standards means that Cleary’s songs take longer to complete, Pin Your Spin is evidence that the effort is justified. 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. "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.