P.O. Box 84653, San Diego, CA 92138
jkanis@rocketmail.com
www.jonkanis.com/blog
619.544.1584 [office]
619.794.6469 [mobile]

About me

I am a 47-year-old musician, producer, composer, disc jockey, artist and writer.  Born and raised in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area I have spent the last 28 years calling San Diego, California my home. I am passionate about all areas of the arts, spirituality and progressive politics. I love to travel and to meet new people and I relish a good creative challenge. Do you need a collaborator or organizer (I am a Virgo after all), someone to assist you in completing a project or to transform an event with music and art? Well, look no further…

Credits and Employment History

Musician / Artist / Writer / Disc Jockey 1983-present
State Controlled Radio [Producer, Host] 2006-present
Reelin’ In The Years Productions [Producer, Director, Vice President, Archivist] 1999-2005
Thompsonian Empire Advertising [Production Manager] 1996-1997

Industry Qualifications

Producer & Host of 240 weekly three-hour radio programs [State Controlled Radio].
Producer & Director of The American Folk Blues Festival Volumes 1-3 DVD/CDs.
Producer of Soul To Soul DVD/CD.
Producer & Director of five short films on the history of American Rhythm & Blues that are on permanent exhibition at The Stax Museum Of American Soul Music in Memphis, Tennessee.
As a performing musician have played between 450 and 500 gigs over the past twenty years.
Musician, Composer & Producer for dozens of commercially released recordings.
Participant in several group exhibitions with multi-media collage work. A rock & roll montage Artist.

Industry Awards

Winner of the Keeping The Blues Alive Achievement In Film Award from The Blues Foundation for The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966 Volumes One & Two [2004].
Grammy nomination from The Recording Academy (R.I.A.A.) for Best Long Form Music Video for The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966 Volume One [2004].
Honorable Mention from MOJO Magazine Music Awards for The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966 Volume One [2004].
Winner of Best Music Anthology DVD Award from DVD Entertainment Awards for The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1969 Volume Three [2005].
Winner of Best Compilation/Collection Of Clips Award from the Home Media Retailing Awards for The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1969 Volume Three [2005].

Education

University of California, Berkeley, CA

Technical Equipment

Proficient in GarageBand with a working knowledge of all non-linear audio and video digital platforms [Pro Tools, Final Cut Pro]. Microsoft Word, Excel, Quick Books Pro.

Other Skills and Additional Information

As a musician, artist and professional representative I have traveled extensively throughout the world with a dozen excursions abroad including ten trips to Europe, thirty treks across the continental United States as well as spending a month in Tibet and a fortnight in Peru & Bolivia. To appreciate the full range of my life experience I suggest perusing The Gig List, a comprehensive chronological listing of every significant public performance that I have either witnessed as an audience member or have performed as a musician, artist, actor or production crew member.

References

Grant Brickner, Owner, Complete Music
Henry Diltz, Photographer
Jeff Severson, Producer, JSP Productions

Affiliations

R.I.A.A.

Licenses & Permits

Basic Driving (PLG), Motorcycle

DOWNLOAD PDF SPIN WIZARD PLAY LISTS HERE:
link: https://rcpt.yousendit.com/1274832108/13917757c68ead08d24daffbad88d9e8]

And…if you are seeking evidence of who to hire as your mobile disc jockey for your next celebratory function I invite you to download these PDF play lists containing 13,000 titles of the most classic PARTY music ever made from the past 80 years. Music for any mood to satisfy everyone at your party regardless of their generation. The secret to hosting a successful party is to have the right DJ/MC to unite everyone around classic sounds that creates an intimate vibe. More than a dozen years as a mobile DJ has taught me how people like to party and have a good time. Here is your soundtrack to guarantee a splendid time for everyone.

You are invited to find me on Facebook or to explore my art work and other ideas on my tumblr page…

Last, but certainly not least, if you would like to hear some of my original music there are eleven tracks that are currently available for FREE download at SoundCloud.

1) Meet The Elements
2) E Eats Everything
3) No! [Children's National Anthem]
4) Nonagon
5) Boss Of Me
6) I Am A Paleontologist
7) Pirate Girls Nine
8) Dr. Worm
9) Clap Your Hands [They Might Be Giants National Anthem]
10) Particle Man
11) Apartment Four
12) In The Middle, In The Middle, In The Middle [with Robin Goldwasser]
13) Four Of Two
14) Shoehorn With Teeth [with The Avatars Of They]
15) Why Does The Sun Shine?
16) High Five
17) Birdhouse In Your Soul
18) Seven Days Of The Week (I Never Go To Work) [Musician's National Anthem]

Encores

19) Fibber Island
20) Alphabet Of Nations

1) Tangled Up In Blue/Bob Dylan
2) Think It Over
3) Where Is Joe Strummer When You Need Him?
4) I’m Eighteen/Alice Cooper
5) Jimmy Burke The Newsboy
6) The Waiting/Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
7) White Rabbit/Jefferson Airplane
8) It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me/Billy Joel
9) The American Dream/Time To Get It Right
10) My Friend Jack/Brownsville Station
11) Welcome To The Working Week/Elvis Costello
12) We Can Work It Out/The Beatles
13) Lawyers, Guns And Money/Warren Zevon

1) 2010
2) Kiss Me Again
3) Quick!
4) I Didn’t Ask For This
5) [The Human] Race [Is A] Riot
6) Below The Fold
7) Where Is Joe Strummer When You Need Him?
8) Doorbell
9) Come Correct
10) Capitalist Plot
11) Think It Over
12) Wail

1) Arlington
2) Tangled Up In Blue/Bob Dylan
3) Jimmy Burke The Newsboy
4) My Friend Jack/Brownsville Station
5) You Don’t Mess Around With Jim/Jim Croce
6) Things We Said Today/The Beatles
7) Merry-Go-Round
8) Cruel To Be Kind/Nick Lowe
9) House Of The Rising Sun/The Animals
10) Follow Up
11) All I Gotta Do/The Beatles
12) It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me/Billy Joel
13) I’m Eighteen/Alice Cooper
14) Quick!
15) Sweet Home Alabama/Lynyrd Skynyrd
16) We Can Work It Out/The Beatles
17) Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy/Elton John
18) The Waiting/Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
19) The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades/Timbuk 3
20) Where Is Joe Strummer When You Need Him?
21) Daydream/The Lovin’ Spoonful
22) White Rabbit/Jefferson Airplane
23) Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer/Gene Autry
24) Like A Rolling Stone/Bob Dylan
25) Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)/Swinging Medallions
26) Bye Bye Love/The Everly Brothers
27) Oh Boy!/Buddy Holly
28) Take Me Home, Country Roads/John Denver
29) Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy/Elton John
30) King Of The Road/Roger Miller
31) Cruel To Be Kind/Nick Lowe
32) You Don’t Know How It Feels/Tom Petty
33) Maggie May/Rod Stewart
34) Lawyers, Guns And Money/Warren Zevon
35) So Sad About Us/The Who
36) Cynthia Mask/Robyn Hitchcock
37) Melissa/The Allman Brothers Band

1) Folsom Prison Blues/Johnny Cash
2) Tangled Up In Blue/Bob Dylan
3) The Waiting/Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
4) The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades/Timbuk 3
5) Marie’s The Name (His Latest Flame)/Elvis Presley
6) House Of The Rising Sun/The Animals
7) Summertime/George Gershwin
8) Hey Good Lookin’/Hank Williams
9) I’ve Just Seen A Face/The Beatles
10) The Joker/Steve Miller Band
11) Hey Ya!/Outkast
12) You Don’t Know How It Feels/Tom Petty
13) What I Like About You/Cherry, Cherry/The Romantics/Neil Diamond
14) Follow Up/Jon Kanis
15) I Melt With You/Modern English
16) Some Kind Of Wonderful/Grand Funk Railroad
17) Comes A Time/Neil Young
18) Light My Fire/The Doors
19) The Letter/The Box Tops
20) You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away/The Beatles
21) Stuck In The Middle With You/Stealers Wheel
22) Brown Eyed Girl/Van Morrison
23) Where Is Joe Strummer When You Need Him?/Jon Kanis
24) We Can Work It Out/The Beatles
25) Five O’Clock World/The Vogues
26) Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)/The Swingin’ Medallions

Today was an exercise in public performance to capture a video for promotional purposes. It appears to be high time for Jon Kanis to have an acoustic performance reel and today is the day to make it happen.

Spent two hours performing at Tucker’s Corner in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego. My good buddy Steve Laub (who is an superb videographer) came out to capture me in all my glory. Our friend Dave Foster is editing together 30 second snippets from 10 of the performances into a composite reel to put up on YouTube. I want to get out and see the world and earn my keep by singing for my supper. Coming soon to a living room, barroom, theater, pool side or cafe terrace near you…

Oh! and muchas gracias to Tucker and Paul at the North Park Nursery for their hospitality.

1) Tangled Up In Blue
2) Jimmy Burke The Newsboy
3) I’m Eighteen
4) Where Is Joe Strummer When You Need Him?
5) White Rabbit
6) Below The Fold
7) The Waiting
8) The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades
9) Quick!
10) Stuck In The Middle With You
11) The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)
12) We Can Work It Out
13) Comes A Time
14) Squeeze Box
15) House Of The Rising Sun
16) Think It Over
17) Hey Good Lookin’
18) Brown Eyed Girl
19) Sympathy For The Devil
20) Mr. Tambourine Man
21) The Letter
22) You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away/ New Amsterdam
23) Welcome To The Working Week
24) I’ve Just Seen A Face
25) Shape Of Things To Come
26) (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone
27) Five O’Clock World

I received a call from Brittni to perform at this evening’s Midnight Oil show at The Ruby Room 48 hours before the event and when I showed up to play my 10:30 PM set it turned out that the other two acts on the bill (Corey Cottrell and Zack Kingsley according to Facebook) were a complete no-show. I told Paul behind the bar what Peter Buck of R.E.M. used to say back in the ’80s: “It’s amazing how far in this business you can get just by showing up for your appointments.” I guess that’s true of ALL businesses, but particularly the music biz. Musicians are already rightly regarded as a bit on the flaky side; not showing up for a gig kind of seals the deal. Instead of playing one set I was invited by Paul to play “as long as I liked.” Since my motto tends to be Go Big or Go Home I ended up playing two and a half hours…suffice to say that I had a blast. A guy named Bons came in with a small posse around 11:30 to celebrate his birthday and he and his date danced up a storm in front of the bandstand for several numbers. Talked to an extremely interesting computer engineer named Steve throughout the night and had a fantastic conversation with him around politics and religion…two of my favorite subjects. Sometime after midnight a duo of percussion (a guy named Jay) and acoustic guitar (a female whose name I didn’t catch) came in and asked to play when I was finished, so they ended up taking over at 12:40. Good times all around. Still need to replace that 10th panel on A Royal Flush…

Set One

1) He’s A Whore/Cheap Trick
2) Ziggy Stardust/David Bowie
3) No Matter What/Badfinger
4) (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction/The Rolling Stones
5) Cold Gin [incomplete]/Kiss
6) So You Wanna Be A Rock ‘N’ Star/The Byrds
7) I Can’t Explain/The Who
8) Head First/The Babys
9) The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)/The Greg Kihn Band
10) Shape Of Things To Come/Max Frost & The Troopers
11) Surrender/Cheap Trick
12) Rock And Roll All Nite/Kiss

Set Two

1) Brown Sugar/The Rolling Stones
2) Interstate Love Song/Stone Temple Pilots
3) Cinnamon Girl/Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4) Louie Louie/The Kingsmen
5) Heart Full Of Soul/I Ain’t Got You/The Yardbirds
6) Boys Don’t Cry/The Cure
7) Pretty In Pink/The Psychedelic Furs
8) I’m Eighteen/Alice Cooper
9) Smoke On The Water/Deep Purple
10) Born To Be Wild/Steppenwolf
11) Slow Down/Larry Williams
12) A Hard Day’s Night/The Beatles
13) What I Like About You/The Romantics
14) When You Find Out/The Nerves
15) Goodnight Now/Cheap Trick

Tonight is our 17th gig and perhaps our last show at bar Eleven. A big thanks to Louis for bringing us in for this Tuesday night residency in August and September. Thanks also to Davey Quinn, Justin & Sal. Good times.

Set One

1) No Matter What/Badfinger
2) Surrender/Cheap Trick
3) The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)/The Greg Kihn Band
4) Cinnamon Girl/Neil Young & Crazy Horse
5) I’m Eighteen/Alice Cooper
6) Street Fighting Man/The Rolling Stones
7) Head First/The Babys
8) Smoke On The Water/Deep Purple
9) Rock And Roll All Nite/Kiss

Set Two

1) Born To Be Wild/Steppenwolf
2) (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction/The Rolling Stones
3) I Melt With You/Modern English
4) Pretty In Pink/The Psychedelic Furs
5) Girl Of My Dreams/Bram Tchaikovsky
6) Starry Eyes/The Records
7) A Hard Day’s Night/The Beatles
8) I Can’t Explain/The Who
9) What I Like About You/The Romantics
10) Brown Sugar/The Rolling Stones
11) Slow Down/Larry Williams
12) Goodnight Now/Cheap Trick

A paid audition (you can’t beat that). It is definitely an effort to load-in, find parking and load-out downtown but the cash makes it easier to bear. A good gig and fun to play during Restaurant Week. Thanks to Leti for getting us the gig and to the staff at The Lincoln Room (especially Dave the manager).