Well, I had a pretty awesome experience this past week.

Thanks to the efforts of a very good friend of mine (All love for you Mr. Jeff Munro) I got the chance to appear on the “Steve Katsos Show”, a venue used to showcase the arts in New England. It’s getting a lot of attention in the area and for good reason. It was an absolute pleasure to get to be on that set and share the stage with some talented people. Steve himself is incredibly funny, making things up off the cuff that are just hysterical.

All in all it was an amazing time. I had the chance to play 3 songs (all originals) as his musical guest for the week. They are posted up on YOUTube, so feel free to check them out below! The show itself will air in month or so. Please, check out Steves Website HERE. It’s some really great stuff that he’s doing.

VIDEOS:

The Only Air (COMING SOON)
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
Drag You Under (COMING SOON)

A big thank you to Steve, Jeff, Michelle, Elizabeth, and everyone else who made it such a wonderful night. Hopefully I get the chance to go back and maybe lay down a little piano for them someday.

Take care,

Jon

I’m gonna start getting this stuff going again. Getting some gigs, maybe get a band together if I can. I played at the Lizard Lounge this past week and man did it feel good. Got some great videos from it that I posted on youtube.

Human Nature by Michael Jackson
Drag You Under

-Jon

In October – I had the opportunity to see David Lanz at the Regent Theater near Boston.

To sum it up, it was an incredible night. He unleashed some of his new songs, a series of piano instrumental Beetle cover songs…unbelievable.

On top of just a fantastic show and getting to meet and talk with him for the 2nd time in my life, he expressed a strong desire to come back and tour the Boston scene far more often – an announcement which resulted in thunderous applause from the audience.

All in all an amazing night, especially in that I got to share it with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law…the most important people in my life.

-Jon

PS – A shot of his Piano…

I decided to enter into a song competition, in which I was to play one of David Lanz’ songs and record a video for youtube.

He will be choosing a certain number of winners each getting various prizes (ranging from songbooks, CDs, to a one on one session with him).

This is my submission, one of my favorite pieces by him.  Rather simplistic, but incredibly beautiful.  I hope you enjoy it.

Feel free to click on my YOUTUBE name when you get to that page (or visit the links section of this site) as it has other songs I have posted on YouTube….and trust me there will be ALOT more to come!

Take care,
Jon

It’s been a bit since anything’s gone on, so I figured I’d throw an update here and let everyone know what’s going on.

Basically- I’ve kind of been M.I.A. for a bit due to some unfortunate luck.  I happened to total 2 cars over Nov and Dec. (one old, one a new one I got to replace the old one heh).  I came out fine with no injuries from both, so I’m quite lucky.  But, having no means of transportation severly cut into my ability to get out and play.  With that and money issues being on my mind over the past 2-3 months, I sort of halted really getting out there to do anything.

However – that’s changing now

I’m undertaking a new project.  Basically – as I’ve mentioned here and there, I’ve played a game called World of Warcraft over the past 3.5 years on and off.  In that time I wrote some pretty goofy songs about the game and topics that revolve around it.  Well people have heard them, like them, and time and again have requested I actually do a CD of all of this music.  For over 3 years I’ve put it off.  It’s time I cut the procrastination.

I have a good buddy who’s going to help me record stuff using his equipment…and if all goes well the end result will be a 10+ digital CD of these songs.  In the meantime however – I will be getting some videos on YOUTUBE of both my newer originals (that aren’t recorded at all yet and have only been performed live) as well as some of these “WoW related” songs.  Hopefully that’ll hold people over!

Also, I’m in the works of trying to get some regular piano lounge gigs in and around Boston.  Background music in a bar type things.  Hopefully those pan out and I’ll be out playing more regularly.

Oh – and I’m up to about 3 weeks having my lastest “new” car and no accidents…lets hope the streak continues

Take it easy everyone,

Jon

 

 

From as early as I can remember, nearly every night, while my father would sit there at our kitchen table reading various books or studying for his night school exams to get his degree, I would hear these haunting piano melodies coming from the CD player (once a tape player, that’s how long ago we’re talking about here.)  The music, was that of David Lanz.  I grew up listening to his New Age piano music, nearly every day.  It was his music that inspired me to start playing the piano to begin with.

About two weeks ago, I actually had the chance to not only hear him perform some of these songs live, but meet him and shake his hand in person, and thank him for all he’s done for me (without ever really knowing it).  I had the opportunity to give him one of my Piano Solo CD’s, obviously inspired by my years of listening to him.  As if that wasn’t enough, the icing on the cake was the 2 signed music books he sent me, along with a few emails of encouragement and advice about my music and how to continue pursuing my goals.

I feel extremely lucky right now.  It’s not very often people have the chance to meet those who inspire them to be something greater, let alone actually have any sort of correspondence with them.  I couldn’t be more thankful for this opportunity.

Thank you David, you have given me another reason to keep on doing this, regardless of the outcome.

To everyone else, please, visit his site.  Listen to his music.  Hopefully then you will understand how amazing this experience has been for me.

http://www.DavidLanz.com

Jonathan 

Well, the CD is up for order!  You can either click the link in this post, or on the Icon on the left hand side of the CD cover.  Both will bring you to the CDFreedom page where you can order my new instrumental CD “The Water’s Edge”; both digital or hardcopy.

If you want to listen to some samples, just go to the myspace page and you can hear 4 tracks from the album!

I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed writing and recording it.

Take Care,

Jon

 

Just a little note to say that the CD is in, just in time for Christmas, and I couldn’t be happier.

My friend Elisabeth Ryan, did an amazing job doing all of the CD photography and graphics.

And I was also lucky enough to have another good friend, Allison Lacasse, add some flute on a piece I orchestrated.

I’ll have the CD for order through my website here soon, just need to get through the holidays first!

Take a listen to some samples on the myspace page though in the meantime. The Link is on the left!

Happy holidays all,

Jon

This past Thrusday, I was able to go into the 105.7 WROR studio with the other top 10 finalists for their “townie tune” competition and see how Loren and Wally run their morning show first hand.

It was an incredible time, getting to see these guys in action and having a chance to talk with them.  I was able to bring my father, which was a pretty exciting thing itself since he was the one who got me listening to their show in the first place. 

I didn’t win the $5,000 grand prize, a friend of mine from the Boston music scene actually did though! (Michael Maloney, great guy).  However, the experience was more than worth the time put into it, and it actually gave me a bit of publicity (I was interviewed for the Billerica local newspaper the other day, keep and eye out for the story!)

Needless to say, a great time.  I also wanted to thank everyone that voted for me and even went the extra length to have others vote for me as well.  The support is more than appreciated.

Take care,

Jon