Jon Herington
Encyclopedia
Jon Herington is an American
guitar
ist, singer-songwriter
and record producer
, most known for being a session musician
. Currently, he is known for being Steely Dan
's lead guitarist. He has been active on the New York City music scene since 1985.
, and grew up in West Long Branch, New Jersey
on the Jersey Shore
. His first band (called Highway) opened for local Bruce Springsteen
on several occasions. He started playing piano and then saxophone, but began playing guitar when his friends left their guitars at his house as a child. Herington studied guitar with Ted Dunbar
while at Rutgers College and also studied privately with Harry Leahey
and Dennis Sandole
. In 1999, toward the end of the recording of their 2000 released album Two Against Nature
, Donald Fagen
and Walter Becker
of Steely Dan wanted to hire another rhythm guitar player for some tracks. Ted Baker
, a close friend of Herington's, was playing keyboard for the band and Becker and Fagen asked for a recommendation for a guitarist. Baker played "The Complete Rhyming Dictionary," a 1992 solo album on Pioneer's Glass House Records that was released only in Japan, for Becker and Fagen http://audiophileimports.com/cgi-bin/ai/cart.cgi/command=listitems&pos=0&type=search?search=jon+herington%20. Soon after, Herington got a call to record Janie Runaway with the rest of the band. Herington then toured with the band to promote the album. In 2003, Steely Dan had Herington back to record their release, Everything Must Go
, as well as to tour in promotion of the album. In 2006, Donald Fagen hired Herington to play on and tour for his solo album Morph the Cat
. He appears on Walter Becker's latest solo album Circus Money
.
In 2000, Herington released a solo album, entitled Like So. In addition to Steely Dan, Herington has toured with Boz Scaggs
, Bette Midler
's "Kiss My Brass" 2005 tour, the Jim Beard
group, The Blue Nile
, Phoebe Snow, saxophonist Bill Evans
, the contemporary jazz superband Chroma
, Lucy Kaplansky
(of Cry Cry Cry
), and jazz/blues organ great Jack McDuff
. He was the pit guitarist for Elton John
and Tim Rice
's Aida
on Broadway for several years. Some of Herington's other recording efforts have included Dennis Chambers
' "Outbreak"; Michael Leonhart
's "Slow"; Jim Beard's four recordings (three of which were co-produced by Jon); two Bill Evans
records, Escape and Starfish and the Moon; Michael "Patches" Stewart's Penetration; Bob Berg
's "Riddles" and "Virtual Reality;" Lucy Kaplansky's "10 Year Night;" Michael Brecker
's "Now You See It...(Now You Don't); " Randy Brecker
's "Toe to Toe;" Victor Bailey's "Bottoms Up;" Chroma
's "Music on the Edge" (with Mike Stern
and others); Robert Secret's "Waiting for Wood" and "Relativity [Blues]," and Lynne Robyn's "Red Bird in Snow." He shares a music studio in midtown Manhattan with Jim Beard
.
and a Fender Telecaster
(he also has affiliation with Hamer, playing Artist Korina, Monaco Elite, Newport, and Talladega models) through a Shure wireless transmitter to a Guytron GT100 amplifier with a Guytron speaker cabinet containing two unmatched Celestion 12 inch speakers. The Guytron is a 100 watt channel switching amp with an interesting twist: it has an intermediate power amp stage with two EL-84 tubes used for overdrive tone (located in the circuit before the quartet of EL-34 power amp tubes). Favorite guitar strings: Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Nickel Wound .010 - .046.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist, singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, most known for being a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
. Currently, he is known for being Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
's lead guitarist. He has been active on the New York City music scene since 1985.
Career
Herington was born in Paterson, New JerseyPaterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
, and grew up in West Long Branch, New Jersey
West Long Branch, New Jersey
West Long Branch is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,097. It is the home of Monmouth University....
on the Jersey Shore
Jersey Shore
The Jersey Shore is a term used to refer to both the Atlantic coast of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the adjacent resort and residential communities. . The New Jersey State Department of Tourism considers the Shore Region, Greater Atlantic City, and the Southern Shore to be distinct, each having...
. His first band (called Highway) opened for local Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
on several occasions. He started playing piano and then saxophone, but began playing guitar when his friends left their guitars at his house as a child. Herington studied guitar with Ted Dunbar
Ted Dunbar
Ted Dunbar was a jazz guitarist, composer, and educator. He published four volumes on jazz. He trained as a pharmacist at Texas Southern University, but by the 1970s only did pharmacy work part-time. He was also a trained numerologist and had studied other aspects of mysticism...
while at Rutgers College and also studied privately with Harry Leahey
Harry Leahey
Harry Leahey was a jazz guitarist and guitar teacher who lived, taught and performed primarily in New Jersey.-Guitar studies:Leahey received his first guitar at the age of thirteen...
and Dennis Sandole
Dennis Sandole
Dennis Sandole , 1913-2000, was a jazz guitarist, composer and music educator from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a music educator and performer he left his fingerprint on music history. His students most notably included John Coltrane and Pat Martino, as well as lesser-known musicians such as...
. In 1999, toward the end of the recording of their 2000 released album Two Against Nature
Two Against Nature
Two Against Nature is the eighth album by Steely Dan, released in 2000. The album won the group four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, and marked the first Steely Dan studio album in 20 years, following 1980's Gaucho. It has been certified 2x platinum in the US.Two Against Nature marked...
, Donald Fagen
Donald Fagen
Donald Jay Fagen is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, lead singer, and the principal songwriter of the rock band Steely Dan ....
and Walter Becker
Walter Becker
Walter Carl Becker is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder, guitarist, bassist and a co-writer of Steely Dan.-Career:...
of Steely Dan wanted to hire another rhythm guitar player for some tracks. Ted Baker
Ted Baker
Ted Baker is a British clothing retail company, known for applying twists to its products, and has become a UK designer label through word of mouth rather than advertising.-History:...
, a close friend of Herington's, was playing keyboard for the band and Becker and Fagen asked for a recommendation for a guitarist. Baker played "The Complete Rhyming Dictionary," a 1992 solo album on Pioneer's Glass House Records that was released only in Japan, for Becker and Fagen http://audiophileimports.com/cgi-bin/ai/cart.cgi/command=listitems&pos=0&type=search?search=jon+herington%20. Soon after, Herington got a call to record Janie Runaway with the rest of the band. Herington then toured with the band to promote the album. In 2003, Steely Dan had Herington back to record their release, Everything Must Go
Everything Must Go (Steely Dan album)
Everything Must Go is the 9th and most recent album by Steely Dan, originally released June 10, 2003. It was Steely Dan's second album following their 20-year studio hiatus, which spanned from 1980 through 2000...
, as well as to tour in promotion of the album. In 2006, Donald Fagen hired Herington to play on and tour for his solo album Morph the Cat
Morph the Cat
Morph the Cat is a Grammy Award-winning 2006 album by Donald Fagen, his first solo release since 1993. The nine-track album was released in the US on March 14, 2006....
. He appears on Walter Becker's latest solo album Circus Money
Circus Money
Circus Money is the second solo album by Walter Becker. It is his first solo album since 11 Tracks of Whack in 1994, having been released on June 10, 2008 through the 5 Over 12 label both in CD and digital download formats.The traditional mask featured on the album's cover is based on traditional...
.
In 2000, Herington released a solo album, entitled Like So. In addition to Steely Dan, Herington has toured with Boz Scaggs
Boz Scaggs
William Royce "Boz" Scaggs is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He gained fame in the 1970s with several Top 20 hit singles in the United States, along with the #2 album, Silk Degrees. Scaggs continues to write, record music and tour.-Early life and career:Scaggs was born in Canton,...
, Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
's "Kiss My Brass" 2005 tour, the Jim Beard
Jim Beard
James Arthur Beard is an American jazz pianist and keyboardist, contemporary instrumental composer, arranger and record producer.- Life and career :...
group, The Blue Nile
The Blue Nile
The Blue Nile is an adult alternative/pop band from Glasgow. The music of The Blue Nile is built heavily on synthesizers and electronic instrumentation and percussion, although later works featured acoustic guitar more prominently.-Early years:...
, Phoebe Snow, saxophonist Bill Evans
Bill Evans (saxophonist)
Bill Evans is an American jazz saxophonist. His father was a classical piano prodigy and until junior high school Evans studied classical clarinet. Early in his studies he was able to hear such artists as Sonny Stitt and Stan Getz live at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago...
, the contemporary jazz superband Chroma
Chroma
Chroma, the Greek word for color, may refer to:* Colorfulness or chroma, the perceived intensity of a specific color* Chrominance or chroma, one of the two components of a television signal* Chroma, a measure of color purity in the Munsell color system...
, Lucy Kaplansky
Lucy Kaplansky
Lucy Kaplansky is an American folk musician based in New York City. Kaplansky also has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Yeshiva University.-Biography:...
(of Cry Cry Cry
Cry Cry Cry
“Cry! Cry! Cry!” is a song that was written and performed by singer/song writer, Johnny Cash. The song was originally released in 1955 and entered the charts at #14. The early success of the song led to a featured spot on the Louisiana Hayride Tour and kicked off the career of Johnny Cash in the...
), and jazz/blues organ great Jack McDuff
Jack McDuff
"Brother" Jack McDuff was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio.-Career:...
. He was the pit guitarist for Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
and Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
on Broadway for several years. Some of Herington's other recording efforts have included Dennis Chambers
Dennis Chambers
Dennis Chambers is an American drummer who has recorded and performed with John Scofield, George Duke, Brecker Brothers, Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, John McLaughlin, Niacin, Mike Stern, Greg Howe, and many others. Despite a lack of formal training, Chambers has become well known among...
' "Outbreak"; Michael Leonhart
Michael Leonhart
Michael Leonhart is a noted trumpet player, producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and singer-songwriter. He has performed with such diverse artists as Steely Dan, Yoko Ono, Bobby McFerrin, and Mos Def....
's "Slow"; Jim Beard's four recordings (three of which were co-produced by Jon); two Bill Evans
Bill Evans (saxophonist)
Bill Evans is an American jazz saxophonist. His father was a classical piano prodigy and until junior high school Evans studied classical clarinet. Early in his studies he was able to hear such artists as Sonny Stitt and Stan Getz live at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago...
records, Escape and Starfish and the Moon; Michael "Patches" Stewart's Penetration; Bob Berg
Bob Berg
Bob Berg was a jazz saxophonist originally from Brooklyn, New York City. He started his musical education at the age of six when he began studying classical piano. He began playing the saxophone at the age of thirteen. Bob Berg was a Juilliard graduate influenced heavily by the late 1964–67 period...
's "Riddles" and "Virtual Reality;" Lucy Kaplansky's "10 Year Night;" Michael Brecker
Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz...
's "Now You See It...(Now You Don't); " Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker
Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
's "Toe to Toe;" Victor Bailey's "Bottoms Up;" Chroma
Chroma
Chroma, the Greek word for color, may refer to:* Colorfulness or chroma, the perceived intensity of a specific color* Chrominance or chroma, one of the two components of a television signal* Chroma, a measure of color purity in the Munsell color system...
's "Music on the Edge" (with Mike Stern
Mike Stern
Mike Stern is an American jazz guitarist. After playing for a few years with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he landed a gig with Billy Cobham and then broke through with Miles Davis' comeback band from 1981 to 1983, and again in 1985. Since then, he launched a solo career, releasing more than a dozen albums...
and others); Robert Secret's "Waiting for Wood" and "Relativity [Blues]," and Lynne Robyn's "Red Bird in Snow." He shares a music studio in midtown Manhattan with Jim Beard
Jim Beard
James Arthur Beard is an American jazz pianist and keyboardist, contemporary instrumental composer, arranger and record producer.- Life and career :...
.
Gear
Herington plays a Gibson ES-335Gibson ES-335
The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial thinline arched-top semi-acoustic electric guitar. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES series in 1958, it is neither hollow nor solid; instead, a solid wood block runs through the center of its body...
and a Fender Telecaster
Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
(he also has affiliation with Hamer, playing Artist Korina, Monaco Elite, Newport, and Talladega models) through a Shure wireless transmitter to a Guytron GT100 amplifier with a Guytron speaker cabinet containing two unmatched Celestion 12 inch speakers. The Guytron is a 100 watt channel switching amp with an interesting twist: it has an intermediate power amp stage with two EL-84 tubes used for overdrive tone (located in the circuit before the quartet of EL-34 power amp tubes). Favorite guitar strings: Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Nickel Wound .010 - .046.
CD
- The Complete Rhyming Dictionary (1992)
- Like So (2000)
- Pulse and Cadence (2008)
- Shine Shine Shine (2011)
Also appears on (partial list)
- Circus Money (2008) - Walter Becker
- Morph The Cat (2006) - Donald Fagen
- Red Thread (2004) - Lucy Kaplansky
- Everything Must Go (2003) - Steely Dan
- Outbreak (2002) - Dennis Chambers
- Every Single Day (2001) - Lucy Kaplansky
- Two Against Nature (2000) - Steely Dan
- Cry, Cry, Cry (1998) - Cry Cry Cry
- Lost at the Carnival (1994) - Jim Beard
- Music on the Edge (1991) - Chroma
- Now You See It...Now You Don't (1990) - Michael Brecker
- Song of the Sun (1990) - Jim Beard
- Toe to Toe (1990) - Randy Brecker