Jon Metzger

Biography

Metzger was raised in McLean, VA, and received early musical influence from his mother, Evelyn Metzger, who was a violinist and pianist. His early music training included piano lessons, participation in the Washington, DC Youth Orchestra Program (where he played the mallet percussion instruments for the first time), and private percussion study with Al Merz of the National Symphony. He attended the Potomac School, and at age 15 was permitted to keep the school’s vibraphone at home over the summer, when his older sister, Lise, in turn began his jazz vibraphone exposure by taking him to hear the legendary vibraphonist Milt Jackson perform at Blues Alley in Washington, DC.

Metzger attended Langley High School where he played in the jazz ensemble under the direction of trumpeter George Horan. He completed a Bachelor of Music degree at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem from 1977-1981, where he studied primarily with J. Massie Johnson and through master classes with marimbists Gordon Stout and Leigh Howard Stevens and vibraphonists Milt Jackson, Gary Burton, and Dave Samuels, among others. As a college student, he began gigging regularly in the Piedmont, NC area, forming his initial quartet and developing original repertoire. He recorded his first album as a leader, Jon Metzger/Vibes in 1984 in New York City with pianist Phil Markowitz, bassist Marc Johnson (musician), and drummer Ted Moore. This project led to a second recording as a leader, Out of the Dark, with pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Marc Johnson (musician), and drummer Joey Baron that was funded by a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Performance Fellowship and later released by VSOP Records in 1986. Since then, he has recorded as a leader and as a sideman for the Summit, Soul Note, Jazz Karma, and Elon Improvibes labels with artists ranging from Cyrus Chestnut, Herlin Riley, Neena Freelon, John Brown, Vincent Gardner, Jack Wilkins, Allison Miller, Ronnie Wells, Ron Elliston, Claire Ritter, and Danny Gottlieb among many others.

Metzger has toured extensively to jazz clubs and festivals in the US and abroad, including as a jazz ambassador for the Department of State under the auspices of the United States Information Agency’s Arts America Program, which from 1985-1995 included tours to Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Columbia, Syria, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Morocco, Tunisia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emerites. His most recent service to the Department of State was in 2010 as a Cultural Envoy to Haceteppe State University in Ankara, Turkey, where he worked with the faculty on the formation of their new Jazz Studies program.

As Leader

Selected Others