Jon Gordon

A reed instrumentalist devoted to contemporary jazz rooted in longstanding conventions has maintained an active presence both as leader and sideman since the dawn of the 1990s. The record labels attached to his projects themselves signal the direction of his work: The Jon Gordon Quartet surfaced on Chiaroscuro in 1992, a Thelonious Monk tribute appeared on Criss Cross two years afterward, and the Double Time imprint accelerated the pace by releasing four separate Gordon dates across three years, opening with Currents in 1998.

Double Time issued Contrasts in 2001, a duo album with pianist Bill Charlap, his frequent collaborator. Production involvement from Phil Woods offers clear evidence of the encouragement and support Gordon has drawn from leading voices in mainstream jazz. Woods served as one of his teachers during Gordon’s teenage years. Another formative influence was arranger, composer, and conductor Maria Schneider. Although he has spent most of his career in his native New York City, Gordon spent a stretch of the 1990s on the West Coast.

Between 1984 and 1988 he studied at the Manhattan School of Music and began working professionally during those same years with trumpeters Red Rodney and Roy Eldridge, guitarist Barney Kessel, trombonist Al Grey, drummer and bandleader Mel Lewis, and many others. Beyond his own ensembles, Gordon belongs to the Jazz Nativity, an expanded collective created to spotlight jazz legends that has included Latin jazz maestro Tito Puente, bass virtuoso Ron Carter, and the pianist who likes to “Take Five,” Dave Brubeck.