Jon Herington (born Jonathan Reuel Herington on April 14, 1954 in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American guitarist, singer-songwriter and record producer, most known for being a session musician. Currently, he is known for being Steely Dan's lead guitarist. He has been active on the New York City music scene since 1985.
Contents |
Herington was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and grew up in West Long Branch, New Jersey on the Jersey Shore.[1] His first band (called Highway) opened for local Bruce Springsteen on several occasions. He started playing piano and then saxophone, but began playing guitar when his friends left their guitars at his house as a child. Herington studied guitar with Ted Dunbar while at Rutgers College and also studied privately with Harry Leahey and Dennis Sandole. In 1999, toward the end of the recording of their 2000 released album Two Against Nature, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan wanted to hire another rhythm guitar player for some tracks. Ted Baker, a close friend of Herington's, was playing keyboard for the band and Becker and Fagen asked for a recommendation for a guitarist. Baker played "The Complete Rhyming Dictionary," a 1992 solo album on Pioneer's Glass House Records that was released only in Japan, for Becker and Fagen [1]. Soon after, Herington got a call to record Janie Runaway with the rest of the band. Herington then toured with the band to promote the album. In 2003, Steely Dan had Herington back to record their release, Everything Must Go, as well as to tour in promotion of the album. In 2006, Donald Fagen hired Herington to play on and tour for his solo album Morph the Cat. He appears on Walter Becker's latest solo album Circus Money.
In 2000, Herington released a solo album, entitled Like So. In addition to Steely Dan, Herington has toured with Boz Scaggs, Bette Midler's "Kiss My Brass" 2005 tour, the Jim Beard group, The Blue Nile, Phoebe Snow, saxophonist Bill Evans, the contemporary jazz superband Chroma, Lucy Kaplansky (of Cry Cry Cry), and jazz/blues organ great Jack McDuff. He was the pit guitarist for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida on Broadway for several years. Some of Herington's other recording efforts have included Dennis Chambers' "Outbreak"; Michael Leonhart's "Slow"; Jim Beard's four recordings (three of which were co-produced by Jon); two Bill Evans records, Escape and Starfish and the Moon; Michael "Patches" Stewart's Penetration; Bob Berg's "Riddles" and "Virtual Reality;" Lucy Kaplansky's "10 Year Night;" Michael Brecker's "Now You See It...(Now You Don't); " Randy Brecker's "Toe to Toe;" Victor Bailey's "Bottoms Up;" Chroma's "Music on the Edge" (with Mike Stern and others); Robert Secret's "Waiting for Wood" and "Relativity [Blues]," and Lynne Robyn's "Red Bird in Snow." He shares a music studio in midtown Manhattan with Jim Beard.
Herington plays a Gibson ES-335 and a Fender Telecaster (he also has affiliation with Hamer, playing Artist Korina, Monaco Elite, Newport, and Talladega models) through a Shure wireless transmitter to a Guytron GT100 amplifier with a Guytron speaker cabinet containing two unmatched Celestion 12 inch speakers. The Guytron is a 100 watt channel switching amp with an interesting twist: it has an intermediate power amp stage with two EL-84 tubes used for overdrive tone (located in the circuit before the quartet of EL-34 power amp tubes). Favorite guitar strings: Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Nickel Wound .010 - .046.