JLaine

Background

Jon was born an only child to Haitian parents in Falls Church, Virginia. He has three close cousins. Only recently (in 2009) he connected with his half sister. In 2011 Jon married Allison Gallo Laine and they reside in Northern Virginia. There are no musicians in his family. Nevertheless, Jon started having an interest in being a musician early on. He taught himself how to play drums listening to his mother's collection of vinyl and watching metal and rap videos on MTV while emulating the drummers he saw. It was not until his senior year of high school that he began classical percussion lessons. During that time he played as the pit percussionist in plays and musicals. Jon was heavily influenced in marching band and drum corps style drumming. Some of his first major musical experiences were in the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Youth Ensemble, the Disneyland Collegiate All Star band, of which he beat out drummers from 100 colleges in the nation on the spot, and the Aspen Concert Jazz Ensemble. Jon holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the George Mason University in Virginia. He then went on to get a Master's of Music degree at Howard University in Washington DC.

Performance

Jon Laine has performed with artists including Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, David Foster, Kenny G, Frédéric Yonnet, Black Milk, El DeBarge, Erykah Badu, Angie Stone, Common, Steve Coleman, Meshell Ndegeocello, Dwele, Louie Bellson, Charlie Byrd, Fred Wesley, Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath, Yusef Lateef and was the drummer for Omar's Sing (if you want it) national tour. He also performs with local artists including RPM, Justin Jones, Wes Felton, Muhsinah, Panacea, Alison Carney, Kenny Wesley and SITALI. In 2007 he performed at the Moers jazz festival in Germany and in 2008 at the Sons d'Hiver jazz festival in Paris with Steve Coleman and Opus Akoben. In addition, Laine was the winner of Downbeat Magazine's Student Music award for Best Instrumental Soloist in 2004 for his performance of Max Roach's The Drum Also Waltzes.

Production

Over the years Jon Laine, formerly known as JLaine, has expanded his work to include music production. He has produced for several local acts including Felton (A Dub Supreme, Postcards from the Edge mixtape, The Last Temptation of Wes Felton), DJ Roddy Rod (Take N Stride), Aaron Broadus (All This Love) and Antithesis. Jon Laine made his debut as co-executive producer for veteran singer/songwriter K'Alyn's third LP Verse 1, Chapter 3 alongside his production partner, TFox. Together Jon Laine and TFox are also known as The Wonderboys. Jon Laine founded his own production company FastLaineMusic in which he has released solo material under, including 2 J DIlla tribute albums, APPLE JONS and MIV, VA is for Lovers, and his tribute album to Michael Jackson entitled Naturally Human. His current collaboration project features fellow label mates, TFOX and Wes Felton who go by the name ANTITHESIS.

J Dilla Tribute

When J's favorite beat maker and DJ J Dilla passed, he found several ways to coordinate tributes including the J DILLA memorial concert featuring performances by Felton, Raheem DeVaughn, Wayna, Grap Luva, DJ Roddy Rod, Asheru, Cy Young, Phife, Illa J and Dwele. Jon Laine sat as music director for the night which added Dilla's premier group Slum Village as the headliner. To date, Jon Laine has made the Memorial concert an annual event and was hired to direct the performance of the RBMA/XM Dilla Day event at XM studios in Washington DC featuring Pete Rock, Talib Kweli and Maureen Yancey.

Discography

Drumming credits

Production Credits

SOLO