Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen

Doors 6.30pm | Performance 7:30pm | Event Calendar CLICK HERE
*If you don't purchase your tickets together, we can not guarantee you will be sat together*

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!! 
Jon Cleary - SOLO PIANO CONCERT

GRAMMY winner and New Orleans pianist Jon Cleary returns to Soul Mama for a headline concert feat classic New Orleans music and some originals. “Johnny doesn’t need to pretend to be anything, he’s one of the only real one’s I’ve ever actually encountered”. - Jon Cle



After thirty-five years of being at the forefront of the ever-evolving musical landscape of New Orleans, two-time Grammy Award winner Jon Cleary is hitting the road to bring audiences a musical tour-de-force that showcases the grit, funk and joy that’s packed concert halls from his home in New Orleans to London, Tokyo and beyond.  



“Sophisticated, nasty, good-time, low-down funk is the folk music of New Orleans,” Cleary says. “Everyone playing on this stage is a New Orleanian by birth or by choice, having learned their craft at the feet of the masters who in turn were taught by the old lions in their day - it's a tradition stretching back over two hundred years. The roots go deep, but each generation, growing up with street parades and second-lines, absorbs the old and introduces the new, gently coaxing the essential essence into and out of each succeeding decade.”

Born in London and on a plane to New Orleans before he turned twenty years old, he grew up absorbed by the sounds and rhythms of the Crescent City. His mastery of the city’s music landed him gigs playing as a session musician in the bands of local legends Earl King, Johnny Adams, Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington, Snooks Eaglin, Ernie K-Doe, Jessie Hill– and as a guitarist for Dr. John. He later toured extensively with icons like Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal. His solo career began in earnest in 1989 and includes beloved records like their self-titled band debut and his 2015 Grammy winner, Go-Go Juice. His current record, The Bywater Sessions, continues this tradition of critical acclaim and rapturous reception.

In fact, his first job in New Orleans was as a painter at beloved local club the Maple Leaf Bar, and it wasn’t long until he was playing piano in that very room. To this day, he and his band continue to pack that room to crowds that gather from around the world, playing their unique and ever-evolving take on New Orleans funk and R&B.

“These grooves are not museum pieces, they are alive, breathing and fresh - and that’s why joints like Tipitina’s, The Maple Leaf Bar and Chickie Wah Wah are always packed when the locals, young and old, come out to hear the Gentlemen do they thang,” Cleary proudly adds. 

‘I love playing with Jon Cleary, he’s the real deal’ -Taj Mahal

'Cleary is the 8th wonder of the world’ - Bonnie Raitt

'He is a real fountain of knowledge and one of the great R&B singers of our time’ - John Scofield

'Listen, we got a guy by the name of Johnny Cleary who’s been livin’ in N’awlins for a long time. He’s got the spirit. You can’t beat that'. -Dr. John

"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, Rolling Stone