Jonny Liebeck – pianist, organist, composer, bandleader – is a jazz musician who dares to do things differently. His range of influences is probably unique. There is almost certainly no other musician on the London music scene (as lively, diverse, and open to new ideas as it is), who has found such instinctively musical ways to combine jazz and electronic dance music. It is almost as if he is creating a new art form. Liebeck describes himself as:
“A church organist, jazz pianist, composer, record collector & DJ, with a taste in music ranging from Baroque organ music to 20th century jazz, Deep House to Jungle, Breakbeat to Techno.”
The steps along the way in his musical journey truly have been astonishing:
“Starting out as a church organist, I was obsessed with J.S. Bach. I wanted to learn all of his Preludes & Fugues and become an organist. Then when I got to study organ at the Royal Academy of Music, I wanted to become a jazz pianist. While I was at the Academy, back home in West London I would go and play jazz at a Church in Acton with a vicar on Sax, a homeless Brazilian man on drums & and a bass player who lived locally. These guys got me into jazz. It was also during my time at music college that I got into electronic dance music. I would listen to deep house music with some South African friends of mine & I used to buy coffee from a vendor outside Marylebone Parish Church who was a Jungle DJ. He introduced me to Jungle.”
Promoters on the London scene that I have spoken to say that they programme him because the level of musicianship at which he and his band are doing what they do is so high. He has in his band two slightly older musicians with a wide range of activity, bassist Tom Mason whose activity ranges from jazz projects to drum and bass – “ we connected on that,” says Liebeck – and drummer Andrew McLean, best known as drummer for Grace Jones, but again with a great breadth of activity.

But it has been the addition of new people, such as guitarist Owen Snider, and the chance to develop new music with them that has pushed things to a new level. As Liebeck says:
“Where I am now is definitely a very different place from where I was. There always has been a mixture of jazz and groove and fusion. But about a year and a half ago a new guitarist joined the band. We had a run of gigs. We had time to reassess, to work on things. And we have really grown as a band”.
The launch gigs for the new EP will present a new rising star, who gives the group another dimension, young alto saxophonist Donovan Haffner. There has also been a widening in the kinds of venues and contexts in which the band has been appearing, not just in jazz clubs but also as part of varied nights at the CLF Art Lounge in Peckham. This broadening-out is a trend likely to continue as the band becomes better known.
The aesthetic which appears natural to Liebeck, with as a more outward-looking form than is often the case in the UK aligns him more closely to what is going on in other countries than we often find in the UK. For example, there is a strong affinity with the ideas of the head of programming at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Maurin Auxemery, who was raised in France. He talks both of jazz having a “central place at the heart of the history of music. From jazz, disco was created, funk was created, rock was created…” and also notes that he is extremely open to “how all that music is giving back to jazz today…talking to audiences with a jazz language.” The club scenes in Munich and Berlin are also particularly open to this kind of hybrid.
With the unmistakable, palpable sense of momentum and courage about its mission that Jonny Liebeck’s group has one can only be optimistic about the direction this band is heading, and for its capacity to find a new, growing and enthusiastic audience.
LIVE DATES :
JONNY LIEBECK EP LAUNCH @JAZZ CAFE POSK – Friday 24 January 2025 – BUY TICKETS
JONNY LIEBECK @606 CLUB Tuesday 25th February 2025 – BUY TICKETS
JONNY LIEBECK @PIZZA EXPRESS LIVE (SOHO) Monday 24 March 2025 – BUY TICKETS