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BRIEF ENCOUNTER: Backstage with Michael Leonhart & Jon Herington





Michael Leonhart's Hotel Music LP is funky chill out lo-fi analog experimental ambient Space Rock trance noise. The vinyl pressing was limited to 200 copies, each with a different hand painted cover. Leonhart is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader and multi-instrumentalist who has played with everyone from Steely Dan to Bruno Mars to Brian Eno and A Tribe Called Quest to name just a few. With only 200 pressed, there aren’t many rarities like this in my record collection. To call it obscure is a bit of an understatement. But it is available for streaming on Spotify. I just got lucky finding it in a clearance bin a few years ago. Michael is the son of Jazz bassist Jay Leonhart. He and his sister Carolyn have both toured and recorded with Donald Fagen and Steely Dan in recent years. Steve Schmidt was kind enough to let me tag along with him and the late great John Von Ohlen when they went backstage to meet the Steely Dan Orchestra at Cincinnati's PNC Pavilion a number of years ago. Michael and Carolyn were thrilled to meet Von Ohlen because he’d played with their father many years ago in Urbie Green’s band. I was merely a fly on the wall for this conversation but it was pretty cool to see Michael, Carolyn and a few other members of the Steely Dan Orchestra - all Jazzbos to the core, naturally - so excited to meet the Baron. I didn’t get to meet Donald and Walter that night. But I did strike up a conversation with guitarist Jon Herington who I spoke to several times afterwards and I interviewed him for a couple different websites that I used to write for. Herington’s solo material is quite good too.


I will feature excerpts from my interview with Jon Herington in a future blog post. In the meantime, here is a link to stream Leonhart's Hotel Music LP and some of Herington's tunes as well.




Michael Leonhart Hotel Music:




Jon Herington "Harsh Light":






Here's a cool backstage interview with both men discussing their work with Steely Dan:








 
 
 

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