A brief musical journey through the life of Jon Tomlinson 1977 Star Wars is premiered, and Jon is born in Long Beach, California. 1984 Jon pretends to be Duran Duran with his brother and friends. Jon's someone dumb like John Taylor. Jon rides a mini Caballero with bonite, Indy's and Vision Street-style wheels. Jon likes the song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." 1987 Jon sees friend his friend Josh Rovner play "Let It Be" dressed like a hippie at a talent show. He asks Josh to show him how to play the guitar. Josh teaches him the "Stray Cat Strut" intro. Jon starts classical guitar lessons with Dawn Kelly and the Noad book. 1990 Jon acquires an electric guitar and writes his first song with Jon Plichta from down the street. Jon Plichta is now a boxer. She was beautiful Everything about her was municipal She was everything a teenage boy could want Jon argues with the bass player's mom about the definition of municipal. Ultimately Jon loses. Jon joins jazz band in junior high, where he meets Aaron Owens (Hepcat) and Ike Owens (The Mars Volte). Jon remembers playing "Birdland." Jon and Aaron play Guns 'N Roses and Tesla. Jon gets more into Metallica. He joins a band called Mortal Terror as lead guitarist and lead singer. He gets kicked out of the band for not wearing tight black pants. On one of their two gigs, Jon wears white jeans and a Hawaiian shirt. There was conflict. 1993 Jon goes to Poly High School. Jon and friends form Pocket Lent, a funk band. Jon sings "Let's Get It On" at Lucy's Bar in north Long Beach. It is really, really bad. They win the battle of the bands at Milliken High School and start playing parties. Jon gets kicked out for not showing up for rehearsals. There are no hard feeling at all. Jon joins the Poly jazz band, where he meets the Tenn brothers: Mugabe, Tokunbo, and Muthoni. Tribal Style was formed. Tokunbo helped Jon pass English that year also. Thank you. That year Jon won Most Improved Musician and Best Rhythm Section along with Mugabe at the San Clemente Jazz Festival. Steve, Jon, and Mugabe would drop reggae beats during jazz band practice. It pissed Mr. Osman off sometimes. Sorry. The following year Jon got F's in jazz band and class piano for absences. There was no way around it. Tribal Style's first gig was at Watson I Presume, a coffeehouse in Lakewood. Jon accidentally broke some kid from another band's guitar amp. Sorry. Tribal Style plays in Long Beach with all the other reggae, ragamuffin, and hip-hop bands. For a while everyone had dreads. All their shows rocked, and Jon realizes that playing shows and dancing fans are an important part of life. So are other things, such as God. Tribal Style also plays in the Los Angeles reggae community, including Kingston 12. Tribal Style begins to pick up motion and gets warm-up acts for Steel Pulse, Israel Vibrations, Burning Spear, Ziggy Marley and more. 1995 Jon begins to play with Steve Lewis on drums and Joel Long on bass. They played an original jazzy jam band sound. There was maturity in this music. Tribal Style continues to play. The band relocates to Tampa and starts a buzz in Jamaica and Florida. Reggae music is in abundance. The band continues to write, record, and perform all over the south and in Jamaica. 2000 Jon starts college and studies piano, theory, and jazz harmony. At the University of Tampa, he concentrates on music composition and piano. Jon meets Bonne Kramer, a musical theatre performer, and she likes Jon a lot. Jon says sorry. But he likes her too. Their like turns into love. 2003 Tribal Style continues to play in Florida. Jon decides to go to New York to do a master's in composition at NYU. Jon moves to NYC and starts school. At NYU Jon studies composition, arranging, and songwriting with Dinu Ghezzo, Justin Della Joio, and Rachel Shanken. 2005 Living in New York, Jon meets Mitch Winston, who wants to build a recording studio. Mitch also buys a Winnebago on eBay. Jon helps build the studio. Jon gigs in New York with lots of musicians, lots of jazz, lots of theatre, lots of school, and lots of songs. Jon and Mitch fly to Salt Lake and drive the Winnebago to Long Beach. They do a show there. It worked. They continue to do shows in New York and the northeast. Jon takes the fall semester off from school and records this album. All the songs were written from December 2003 to September 2005. 2006 Rosa and the Mustard Man is finished. Mitch sells the Winnebago on Ebay. Jon lives in Harlem for the summer. Joyce lands a job. Jim retires. Bonne dances. The Civilized Hyenas is released. Rosa and the Mustard Man is released. Israel defends itself. 2007 Jon goes on tour opening up for...
