Born: April 10, 1976 Primary Instrument: Guitar
Jon Delaney is a freelance guitarist, composer and teacher from Melbourne, Australia. He performs regularly with his own band, “The Jon Delaney Trio” and in many other contexts, with some of the foremost talents on the Melbourne improvised music scene.
Jon's musical development began while he was ostensibly studying philosophy and literature at Monash University, playing rock guitar and bass in pubs, clubs, and friend's living rooms and doing serious diservice to Descartes and Shelley. Taking a year off after graduation to practice and catch up on reading, he was accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts in 1998, from which he emerged some years later with Bachelor (hons) and Master of Music Performance degrees (he has also taken part in the Banff Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music (2006), a 3-week ferment of creativity and discovery in the Canadian Rockies).
His studies and the predictable onset of tinnitus contributed to a broadening of his musical taste, and Jon developed an attachment to small group jazz, baroque, and 20th century classical music. He now performs predominanty in a modern jazz style, incorporating elements of free improvisation and textural variation, and plays Bach and strums indie-rock songs to himself on weekends. He has a special interest in the continuing evolution of accompaniment roles in jazz, which he explores in “The Jon Delaney Trio”, and is influenced strongly by Jim Hall, J.S. Bach, Jimmy Guiffre, Art Farmer, Don Thompson, Jane’s Addiction, Sonny Rollins and countless others.
Jon is the author of two theses: “Jim Hall Live!: Advancing Conceptions of Instrumental Role Playing in Jazz Ensembles”, and “In Search of a History: Selection and Performance of Transcriptions for Pick-Style Guitar and Bass Duo of J.S. Bach’s Contrapuntal Keyboard Works”. He is a faculty member of Victoria University, and also teaches guitar at Fitzroy High School.
Jon is a current member of the following ensembles:
“Jon Delaney Trio” Jon Delaney - Guitar Tom Lee - Double Bass Ronny Ferella - Drums
“Southside Hammond Combo” aka “Melbourne Nord Collective” Gideon Brazil - Sax Jon Delaney - Guitar Darrin Archer - Keys Ben Hendry - Drums
“Danny Healy Quartet” Danny Healy - Sax Jon Delaney - Guitar Enzo Ruberto - Double Bass Drums -
“Melbourne Jazz Orchestra” Jon Delaney - Guitar + many others
“Jazz Manouche Project” Jon Delaney - Guitar Paul Gillett - Guitar Enzo Ruberto - Bass
“Boptet” duo, trio, quartet Danny Healy - Sax Jon Delaney - Guitar Drums - Bass -
“Dirty Martinis” Little Big Band Jeremy Diffey - Sax/Leader Jon Delaney - Guitar several others
