Jon Cleary: The Englishman Who Plays Piano Like He Was Born on Rampart Street

The Englishman Who Plays Piano Like He Was Born on Rampart Street

Jon Cleary is from Kent, England. This is the kind of biographical fact that makes people do a double take, because when you hear Cleary play piano, you would bet your last dollar he grew up within walking distance of Tipitina's. His command of the New Orleans piano tradition—the rolling basses, the syncopated right hand, the deep funk pocket—is so complete that even the local musicians who grew up with the music shake their heads in disbelief.

Cleary was born in 1962 in Cranbrook, about as far from New Orleans as you can get geographically and culturally. But his uncle kept bringing American records back from trips abroad, and one of those records was by Professor Longhair. For Cleary, it was a conversion experience. The sound of Fess's piano—that rolling, rumba-inflected, utterly unique approach to the keyboard—rewired the young Englishman's brain. He had to learn how to make that sound.

He came to New Orleans and never seriously considered leaving. The city welcomed him the way it welcomes anyone who's genuine—with open arms, a cold beer, and the understanding that you'd better be able to play if you're going to sit in. Cleary could play. He studied the New Orleans piano tradition with the obsessiveness of a scholar and the feel of a natural, absorbing the styles of Professor Longhair, James Booker, Allen Toussaint, and Dr. John until they became part of his own musical DNA.

His band, Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen, became one of the best live acts in a city overflowing with great live acts. Their regular gigs at Tipitina's and the Maple Leaf Bar are the kind of shows that locals guard jealously—the tourist crowd hasn't fully discovered Cleary yet, and the regulars aren't in a hurry to share.

Cleary's reputation spread through the musician grapevine. Eric Clapton hired him. Bonnie Raitt hired him. B.B. King hired him. Taj Mahal hired him. John Scofield recorded his compositions. When artists of that caliber seek you out, it's because you have something that can't be faked—and what Cleary has is an understanding of New Orleans music that goes bone deep.

In 2016, his album GoGo Juice won the Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album, a recognition that surprised nobody in New Orleans but delighted them all the same. Cleary had been playing at that level for decades; it was nice that the rest of the world finally noticed.

Jon Cleary's story is the same story as Anders Osborne's, in a way—another foreigner who came to New Orleans and was transformed by the music into something the city recognized as its own. New Orleans doesn't care about your passport. It cares about your feel. And Cleary's feel is so deep, so authentic, so steeped in the tradition that when he sits down at a piano in a dark club on a Tuesday night, the ghosts of Fess and Booker are nodding along.