Biography

Jon Thompson is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who talents as a saxophonist, guitarist, and vocalist have been a contribution to the Philadelphia music scene for over ten years. He currently collaborates through writing, performance and / or studio work with Philadelphia and New York area artists including the Machine, Matt Davis’s Aerial Photograph, Oud Blues, Ellipsis, Chris Harford, Sinking Ship and Jason Fraticelli and the Dreams.

Jon first moved to Philadelphia in the mid-1990s to attend the University of the Arts, and he graduated with a B.A. in music from Temple University.  After moving to New York in 2000 and finding work as a sideman in jazz and klezmer bands, he moved to Lambertville, New Jersey, where he began writing songs that drew on country and folk influences.  He formed the alt-country band Lazlo, which released two full-length albums (“Lazlo” and “Old Steel Company”) and opened for national acts such as Lyle Lovett.   With other artists, Jon has opened for the Wailers, Bernie Worrell and the Woo Warriors, Meshell Ndegeocello, Joan As Police Woman, Cassandra Wilson, the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, and the Jazz Mandolin Project to name a few. In the jazz world, Jon has had the opportunity to play with Terrell Stafford, John Swana, Phil Roy, Larry Mckenna, Grover Washington, Jim Holton, Jon Madof’s Rashanim and Jonathan Blake.

He returned to Philadelphia in 2006 and began working as a multi-instrumentalist with local and national artists. Jon is a faculty member at the Lawrenceville School, the Princeton Montessori School and the Pennington School, where he teaches guitar and woodwinds.        
By Matt Kohut