Jonathan Best

Jonathan Best got his chops playing on the street corners of NYC, in churches with gospel groups, and on stages with the Drifters and the Coasters, and touring the world with Talking Heads leader David Byrne.
 
Although he studied piano, composition, jazz ensemble playing, orchestration, and western music theory at Merrit College, California State University, and Rockland Community College, most of his learning took place on stages and with students.
 

 
He owned and operated a recording studio in Manhattan for twenty years where he produced many albums and soundtracks. From 2007 to 2010 he made frequent trips to Kenya to work with the Maasai communities in building a media center where he learned first hand how music played by an entire village can help sustain a community through drought, impoverishment and oppression.
 
Through this same period he enrolled and graduated from Music For People’s Musician Leadership Program where he learned first hand how to facilitate this same healing music within his communities back home. He now dedicates his life to building community through participatory, all- inclusive music making to support the survival and evolution of humankind with his non-profit mission ComMusiky.
 
Jonathan’s shows are so packed with energy as he involves the entire audience to loop sounds into his songs as he goes. His magnetic energy and his ferocious piano playing could easily leave audiences stunned, but he flips it on everyone by making them part of the show—surprising themselves with their own talent.