Jon Sanders is recognised as a leading exponent in drop D and DADGAD guitar… Read Full Bio ↴Jon Sanders is recognised as a leading exponent in drop D and DADGAD guitar playing. His style draws on the freedom within the contemporary acoustic music scene incorporating elements of jazz, funk, latino and gaelic styles, somewhat reminiscent of Sylvain Luc, Pierre Bensusan and Antonio Forcione, yet instantly diifferent.
Based jointly in Dingle, Ireland and Auckland, New Zealand, he has co-produced with some of the best irish traditional musicians and singers including accordianist/singer Seamus Begley, singer Mary Black, guitarist and accordiainst Tim Edey,uillean piper Eoin Duignan, singer Geraldine McGowan, violinist Toni Geiling, Lord of the Dance accordianist Liam O'Connor, singer Eilish Kennedy.
He is now co-producing in Pacific Bespoke, an impro-base groove machine with Dublin eletronica engineer Alan Gleeson.In the traditional field he continues to play with top irish names accordianists Tim Edey and Damien Mullane, banjo player Dessie Kelliher, uillean piper and low whistle player and composer Eoin Duignan, the Begley family and Michael Black from the famous Black singing family.

Jon took up the guitar aged 12 and soon made his mark in and around London playing electric and acoustics in rock and folk bands in the 80's including Hot Banana and Three Wise Fools.

In the mid 80's he switched to a more organic grassroots approach to his music, developing a modal, acoustic style of playing guitar in drop D and DADGAD tunings. He moved to Ireland, settling in Dingle, County Kerry in the early 90's and began playing with local musicians including fiddler Mark Crichard, with whom he later went on to record Music from Ireland and other Atlantic Shores in 2003. Jon continued to develop his style of accompaniment playing with some of the greats in Irish traditional music including Mary Black, Seamus and Brendan Begley, Vinnie Kilduff, Frankie Gavin, Kila, Sliabh Notes, Steve Cooney, Liam O'Connor, singer Eilish Kennedy, Eoin Duignan and the "Sessions from the Hearth" artists.

In more recent years he has been playing latinjazz and soulfunk music in drop D tuning using a loop pedal to set up soundscapes. Known for his innovative approach (the left-handed Da Vinci mind!?) he also developed a guitar with an innovative 2nd pick-up system allowing him to play guitar and bass simultaneously. Known as "the Bull", this guitar sound has entertained crowds in Italy, France, UK and Ireland.
Over the past 6 months he has also been transposing classical, folk and jazz pieces to the tenor ukulele and has integrated these into his sets. For his latest project he has teamed up with Dublin electronica musician Alan Gleeson to form Pacific Bespoke, a mix of tropical grooves, roots, reggae, funk and house grooves. The two are also working with various sax players including Swede Fredrik Stenberg and Nigel O'Brien from Limerick. See www.myspace.com/pacificbespoke for listings.

He has toured Europe and New Zealand extensively and his compositions have been accepted by New York-based Pump Audio who supply the film and TV companies with soundtrack material. His Bealtaine track is currently playing to celebrated Antarctic photographer Greg Murphy's multimedia show. TV appearances include LWT's "This is Your Life", RTE's "Open House" and "Nationwide", TG4's "Feilte", "Sibin" and "Ardan" and a recent documentary on Mary Black produced by Hummingbird Productions for RTE television and for DVD release. His film score credits include "Connomara" (2000) and TG4's "Scoil leis an gCaid", "Ni Beatha go Bás" (1999). His session work includes "Geantrai" (2000), "Sessions from the Hearth" (1999), Eoin Duignan's "Ancient Rite" (2000) and Lumina (2004), Tony Small's " Galway " (2001) and Eilís Kennedy's "A Time to Sail" (2001) and "One Sweet Kiss" (2005). He produced the "Geantrai" album in 1999, Áine Ui Laithe and Eilin Ni Chearna's new cd, "Mná an Oileáin", featuring music from the Blasket Islands . In August 2003 Jon recorded bouzouki and guitar for Benny O'Carroll's new "Dance It Yourself " dvd, the first Irish traditional album to be recorded in 5:1 surround sound.

Concurrent with his touring, Jon runs a digital studio in west Kerry. "Music from Ireland and other Atlantic Shores", with Mark Crickard was the second production to come out of Jon's Smerwick Studios following on from Mná na Oileáin. His current album Latitudes was also produced there as was some of Eilis Kennedy's "One Sweet Kiss" and significant irish language song recordings for the educational department.