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Jon Lundbom

Since 2003, “avant-jazz etc” guitarist Jon Lundbom has lead Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord, with which he has released seven full-length albums and a brand-new series of four EPs. The new 2016:EPs series is available for download from Hot Cup Records or as a handsome, limited-edition four-CD boxed set right here at www.jonlundbom.com. Jon also performs with Bryan & the Hagggards, NYC’s most award-winning avant-country Merle Haggard cover band, with whom he has released three albums. The most recent, Merles Just Want to Have Fun featuring Eugene Chadbourne, was released on Northern Spy Records in 2013.

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord features long-time friend and fellow Chicagoan Jon Irabagon on alto and soprano saxophones, Bryan Murray (aka Balto Exclamationpoint) on tenor and balto! saxophones, Moppa Elliott on bass, and “Philly” Dan Monagahan on drums.

Jon’s music – described as “Hardbop + Zeppelin + Schoenberg” (Dave Madden, ‘SLUG’) – is a showcase for his “intense phrasing and mind-altering solo spots” (Glenn Astarita, ‘All About Jazz’), a “boundary-shattering shot of adrenaline that screws with your head and messes with your soul” (Jordan Richardson, ‘The Seattle PI’). Jon has been called “an idiosyncratic genius harboring boundary-stretching notions in his musical make up” (CJ Bond, ‘JazMuzic.com’); “hopefully Lundbom will start getting more attention for his fresh perspective, both as a writer and player” (Mike Shanley, ‘ShanleyOnMusic’), “[Jon’s playing brings] new ideas to what jazz guitar can be” (Paul Acquaro, ‘Free Jazz Blog’); “Big Five Chord, individually and collectively, is one of the most important [ensembles] around today” (Gregory Applegate Edwards, ‘Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog’). “Olympic-caliber guitar gymnastics” (Bob Gendron, ‘Downbeat’). “A guitarist” (The New York Times). More press can be found here.

Originally hailing from the suburbs of Chicago, Jon began playing guitar in the second grade, more seriously as a young teenager. After years of performing in and around his hometown and a brief tour of Europe, Jon moved to Chicago proper to attend the Jazz Studies program at DePaul University. There he studied Jazz guitar with Bob Palmieri, classical guitar with Mark Maxwell, and improvisation with Larry Novak, Larry Gray, Alan Swain, and others. Also, while at DePaul, Jon studied classical composition with Drs. George Flynn, Kurt Westerburg, and Jeff Kowalkowski (Jack the Dog).

As Jon’s interests in twentieth-century classical music and more advanced forms of improvisation developed, his music became increasingly informed by non-linear complexity and open improvisational structures. While at DePaul, Jon maintained an active performance schedule, performing frequently under his own name in and around Chicago. He also, along with cellist and composer Andrew Morgan, co-founded both the DePaul University Avant-Garde Music Society and (with guitarist Aaron Solomon) the Seven Days of Stockhausen improvisation collective. Jon also performed or recorded alongside such renowned musicians as Joe Lovano, Tom Harrell, Ken Vandermark, Fred Lomberg-Holm, Eric Leonardsen, Laurie Lee-Moses, and Bob Falesch.

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3
Album Review

Bryan Murray & Jon Lundbom: Beats by Balto! Vol. 2

Read "Beats by Balto! Vol. 2" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Spinning Beats by Balto Vol. 2 in the midst of a global pandemic brings to mind a quote from Zack de la Rocha: “Fear is your only god on the radio." The Rage Against The Machine frontman is begging you to turn off your radio, but somehow you just can't turn off Balto!'s beats. The brain-child of guitarist Jon Lundbom and Bryan Murray (Bryan And The Haggards, Big Five Chord), the spine-tingling essence of this music confirms what ...

Album Review

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: 2016: EPs

Read "2016: EPs" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Quattro EP scaricabili singolarmente oppure un box di quattro CD disponibili a fine anno sono le opzioni a disposizioni di chiunque voglia scoprire l'ultima creatura musicale di Jon Lundbom e i suoi Big Five Chord. Il percorso iniziato tredici anni orsono e sviluppatosi attraverso una serie di album perlopiù entusiasmanti, in una continua e proficua esplorazione sonora attraverso i generi--troviamo rock e jazz, free e Schoenberg, bop e Stockhausen -sembra aver trovato in queste due ore di musica ...

3
Album Review

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Bring Their 'A' Game

Read "Bring Their 'A' Game" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Bring Their 'A'Game is an EP release, download only (for now), from the fertile musical imagination of guitarist Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord. It is the second in a four part set--following Make Magic Happen. Lundbom's plan is to release four of these download EPs in 2016, then collect them into a four disc box set to sell in the physical copy form near year's end. The three tunes on Bring Their 'A' Game cover the same ...

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Album Review

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Make Magic Happen

Read "Make Magic Happen" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Guitarist Jon Lundbom, with his Big Five Chord quintet, has developed the unusual marketing strategy of individually presenting each of a series of four EPs (at lower price points) over the course of 2016 with an option to purchase all as a box set. At approximately one half-hour each, it's a generous proposition; more so, given the quality of the music as witnessed on the first of these releases, Make Magic Happen. Big Five Chord is a solidly ...

2
Album Review

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Make Magic Happen

Read "Make Magic Happen" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The computer/internet age ushers in new ways of selling music. Record stores, flipping through bins of long playing albums--long gone. Compact discs--not selling like they used to. Digital downloads--the thing of the future? Guitarist Jon Lundbom has come up with the idea--influenced by trumpeter Dave Douglas' foray into this territory, perhaps, with his Three Views (Greenleaf, 2011)--of releasing four digital EPs, “extended play" sets that clock in at about thirty minutes apiece, spreading those releases over the course of nine ...

Album Review

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Jeremiah

Read "Jeremiah" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


La saga del chitarrista Jon Lundbom e dei suoi Big Five Chords giunge con Jeremiah al settimo capitolo ma non per questo viene meno l'energia, la miscela esplosiva di bop, free, rock e avant che aveva caratterizzato il sorprendente album d'esordio nell'ormai lontano 2003. Certo, manca l'effetto sorpresa, gli album successivi hanno proseguito sui sentieri tracciati nell'esordio pur combinandoli e sviluppandoli in vario modo e con sempre maggior attenzione alla scrittura, ma il piacere dell'ascolto di questo manipolo di guastatori ...

5
Album Review

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Jeremiah

Read "Jeremiah" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The seventh album by guitarist Jon Lundbom and his septet Big Five Chord leaves little room for fence sitters. His music, like fellow band members Jon Irabagon and Moppa Elliott of Mostly Other People Do The Killing, walks the razor's edge between clamorous and cultured. It's comfort is often the discombobulation. That said, isn't that what jazz (real jazz) has always been about? Jeremiah his latest release, follows a 2-disc live recording Liverevil (Hot Cup, 2013). While six ...

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139

Recording

Jon Lundbom and Big Five Chord - Quavers! Quavers! Quavers! Quavers! (Hot Cup, 2011)

Jon Lundbom and Big Five Chord - Quavers! Quavers! Quavers! Quavers! (Hot Cup, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Hot Cup Records can always be counted on to build a refreshingly post-modern view of jazz, whether it is the ironic beauty of Mostly Other People Do the Killing to the country/jazz experiment Pretend It's the End of the World. Irony and irreverence are the key to their aesthetic, but never at the expense of the music. Jon Lundbom's Quavers mixes a fascinating Sharrock/Sanders aesthetic to elements of funk and post-modern fusion. Joining Lundbom on guitar are some of the ...

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Recording

From the Stacks 2011, Vol. 4: The Cookers, Jon Lundbom, Shane Endsley, Others

From the Stacks 2011, Vol. 4: The Cookers, Jon Lundbom, Shane Endsley, Others

Source: Something Else!

By S. Victor Aaron This year's fourth installment of From The Stacks is, as has been the pattern, all jazz. But it's jazz in its many incarnations, from straight ahead post-bop to whack jazz. The protagonists here range from experienced old vets to hungry young newcomers. The common element among all six of these new releases is that I recommend them all, for what that's worth. These concise, one-paragraph reviews don't really do these records enough justice in describing the ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Beats by Balto! Vol. 2

Chant Records
2021

buy

Make Magic Happen

Hot Cup Records
2016

buy

Bring Their 'A' Game

Hot Cup Records
2016

buy

2016: EPs

Hot Cup Records
2016

buy

Jeremiah

Hot Cup Records
2015

buy

Liverevil

Hot Cup Records
2014

buy

Period

From: Play All The Notes
By Jon Lundbom

Ain't Cha

From: Make the Magic Happen
By Jon Lundbom

Screamer

From: Jeremiah
By Jon Lundbom

Videos

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