Home » Member Page

Jonantha Sheckler

Brooklyn based drummer and composer.

About Me

At a young age, New York based musician Jon Sheckler is proving to be a well versed musician and an up and coming band leader. All About Jazz calls him and his trio “ones to watch” and that Jon's music is full of “mischievous Dudley Moore-like playing.” As a drummer, Jon has played with some of today's leading musicians and entertainers including trumpeter Clay Jenkins, vocalist Catherine Jensen-Hole, guitarist Al Rowe, and international recording artist Darrius Willrich. Since moving to New York in 2014, Jon has been featured at Rockwood Music Hall, Club Bonafide, Sidewalk Cafe, Williamsburg Music Center and ShapeShifter Lab. In 2017, the trio began its residency at Caffe Vivaldi. ​ In 2010, the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival recognized Jon as an outstanding musician and his composition “Water Marks” won 2009 UNC Jazz Composers Contest. Sonarchy Radio has twice featured Jon in 2010 and 2013 when he debuted a suite for octet titled Bodies of Water.

With the release of Cable Street, featuring Darrius Willrich and Nathan Parker, Jon became a featured artist for Critical Sun Records. The track “Pensive Matters” was recently chosen as a Download of the Day by All About Jazz in 2013. Jon has also worked with Grammy winning producer and engineer Bubba Jones and singer-songwriter Jackie Sullivan.

While leading his own piano trio, Jon is co-leading Linden St. Connection with Caitlin Bement and producing singer-songwriter Jordan Ziskin's debut album Crazy Child and is featured on the eponymous debut album of Sons of Cloda. Jon is also producing Linden St. Connections Debut EP, Three Word Title, and his second album, Cityscapes. ​ Jon holds a Bachelor of Music - Jazz Studies degree from the University of Northern Colorado

My Jazz Story

I love jazz because it gives me the best feeling in the world when i play. It makes me feel joyously connected to other people. I was first exposed to jazz by my middle school/high school band director. One overlapped the other. Todd Mahaffey gave Basie Big Band '75 and I was off the races. The best show I ever attended was not a jazz show. I saw Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen and every inch of their performance was perfect. The vibe was on it, the tunes were great, the set list flowed really well and Cleary knew how to play the audience. It was simple and fantastic. The first jazz record I bought was Count Basie Gold. It was one of those old "best of" records but it had a lot of the 40's Basie unit. My advice to new listeners is to stop thinking of jazz as jazz. It's just music. If you start thinking about jazz, you starting thinking about what box the music should look like. It should be modern, it should be bebop, it should be.... It should just make you feel something and pique your interest.