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

1989 saw the release of Cleary’s first album, Alligator Lips & Dirty Rice. It was also the year he moved briefly to New York and landed the job of providing the backing band for visiting New Orleans artists at leading NY venue, ‘Tramps’. In New York he was able to study Afro Cuban music and, after a temporary move back to London, started traveling regularly to Havana and Santiago in the early 90’s.

Soon after, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards introduced Cleary to musician/record producer John Porter who then hired him to write, record and tour with Taj Mahal - who covered four of Cleary’s compositions. When Porter secured a record deal for Cleary with Virgin, Cleary invested the advance money on recording equipment and set up a studio in New Orleans where he recorded Moonburn, and then two further records for Basin Street Records. He called the studio, aptly, “Funk Headquarters”.

Later on in Los Angeles, performing with BB King, Cleary was asked by Bonnie Raitt to join her new band in which he played keyboards, percussion and guitar. Cleary stayed for a decade, Raitt cut five of Cleary’s songs, and all the while, Cleary juggled his own career touring around the world with his celebrated band, the Absolute Monster Gentlemen.

In 2016, Cleary released Go Go Juice to critical acclaim. It went on to earn him his first GRAMMY. Later on he partnered with guitarist John Scofield for a number of tours worldwide. Cleary also appeared in Martin Scorcese’s documentary “Red, White & Blue”, accompanying Jeff Beck, Tom Jones and Van Morrison at Abbey Road Studios in London.

His dizzying career has included on-stage performances and studio recordings with a veritable who’s who of the business; Rufus Thomas, John Lee Hooker, D’Angelo, Heavy D, Eric Clapton, Keb-Mo, Ryan Adams, Levon Helm, Zigaboo Modeliste, Mavis Staples, Ann Peebles, Allen Toussaint, Dr John, Brian May, Robert Plant (Cleary’s one and only gig as a drummer!), Warren Storm, Bobby Charles, Boz Scaggs, Maria Muldaur, Walter Trout, Norbert Scrod, Little Milton, Ike Turner, Henry Butler, Charles Brown, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Junior Wells, Irma Thomas… and the list goes on and on.

In addition to his aforementioned GRAMMY, Cleary has spent the last 20 years consistently winning New Orleans music awards including Best Piano/Keyboard Player, Best Louisiana Artist and Record of the Year from OffBeat, as well as several Gambit New Orleans ‘Best Of”’s. In 2017 he was presented with the prestigious Ascona Jazz award. In 2020 he was named the “Best International Blues Act” by UK tastemaker JazzFM.

Today, the music continues. Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen tour all over the world on an almost never ending basis, while maintaining a robust local schedule in New Orleans. In addition, Cleary’s solo piano performances remain a fan favorite at venues like Chickie Wah Wah and the Saturn Bar.  

‘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