The jon garner trio is the newest project from veteran San Diego musicians Jon Garner, Rich Wright, and Michael Cannon. Combining serious chops with musical maturity, the group crafts music that is both full of pop sensibilities, and yet allows room for the musician to create and explore on the fly. In short, music that sounds good to people of any generation yet is fun enough to perform for generations.

The guys in this group have played in every imaginable style over their careers and bring that knowledge with them as they shape the jon garner trio sound. The trio format allows the music to breath and for the players to stretch out, especially in their exciting live performance; deconstructing and reanimating the music in real time, real funky time.

The sound can be described as alternative soul or indie funk. The song “Holiday” draws on indie pop, with a Stereolab type beat and floating pop melody with a touch of soul inflection. “Mission” and “Watermelon Girl” are global hybrids of American groove and late 70’s Brazilian funk, similar to music legendary Brazilian artist Jorge Ben-jor. “If I” is a classic Motown or Stax Records type groove. Even the Americana torch song “Laces” contains a steady pulse, a bounce that is crucial to the jon garner trio sound. This is music designed to move you and get you moving at the same time.

Member Bios

Jon Garner, guitarist/vocalist, has always had the heart of a gypsy; restless, roaming, always searching. He was raised on the Beatles and Beethoven, and began playing guitar in the 80’s punk rock scene. His musical journey wound it’s way through a formal education in Jazz Studies at UMASS, Amherst. An informal education continued in the years immediately after school, wandering across the US, absorbing the indie rock of Chapel Hill, N.C., the blues-inflected everything in Austin, TX, and even the vampire rock in Albuquerque, NM. Eventually landing in San Diego, CA, Jon jumped into the music scene and played every gig that came his way including the latin-groove of Aqua Dulce, the hip-hop rock of D.Frost, the funk-ska-soul of Blume, and even the avant-garde jazz of the Skelton Key Orchestra. A recent Master of Music degree in Jazz from SDSU gave Jon a renewed commitment to pursuing music that is full of passion and life. Just launched is the groove-pop-acoustic-alt-soul jazz band, the jon garner trio.

Rich Wright, Bassist, and former lineman for San Diego State University suddenly found himself with a lot of time to practice when he blew his knee out during a game. He rekindled his love for his first passion in life, blues and soul music, in particular, the Stax Records sound. Originally a guitarist, Rich switched to electric bass, then acoustic bass, eventually finding his home with “Cedro”, his 110 yr. old Mexican upright bass. Honing his skills with bands such as the soul sounds of Boy Roy and the All-White Soul Band, the surf-punk of Greenflash, and the acoustic beach rock of K32, Rich now provides the deep end of creativity to the jon garner trio.

Michael (“Mikey”) Cannon, Drummer, is a home-grown San Diegan. He started playing drums around the age of nine, and by the time he was a junior at Santana High, he was bussing to the local J.C. at night to play in the Jazz Ensemble. He attended San Diego State in the Music program to complete his education. His recent projects have included a stint with Spaceman Spiff, The B-side Players and Maiz as well as teaching and composing/producing new music for his own project/label, Bombastic Music. He is currently recording and gigging with the jon garner trio.