WHO: Jon Herington, Dennis Espantman and Frank Pagano.
WHAT: The Harmonious Five and The Jon Herington Band.
WHERE: Mexicali Blues, 1409 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck; 201-833-0011 or mexicalilive.com.
WHEN: 8 tonight.
HOW MUCH: $12.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: jonherington.com.
Jon Herington's résumé is the stuff of a guitarist's dreams. Known best for his incredible guitar solos with Steely Dan, the New Jersey native has also played with Donald Fagen on his solo tour, Boz Scaggs, Bette Midler, the Jim Beard group, The Blue Nile, Phoebe Snow, Madeleine Peyroux, Bobby Caldwell, saxophonist Bill Evans, jazz/blues great Jack McDuff and the Dukes of September, a group with Fagen, Scaggs and Michael McDonald.
He enjoys and appreciates that work, but he loves his own band best.
"I can design it myself," he says of The Jon Herington Band, in which he writes, sings and plays guitar. "I never have to play a song I don't want to, play it any particular way I don't want to. I'm lucky because even my jobs as a freelancer, I have great freedom and love the music. But even on great jobs with some of these well-known acts that I've worked for, every once in a while there's something you have to do. Or maybe there's something you have to do again that you've done many times. It's difficult to get up for it. With my band, I never have that problem."
The Jon Herington Band is fronted by a guitar great, but it's basically three Jersey boys doing what they love.
Bassist Dennis Espantman (now living in Brooklyn) grew up in Garfield, and drummer Frank Pagano grew up in Glen Rock and lives in Tenafly. Herington was born at Paterson General Hospital, raised in West Long Branch and attended Rutgers.
"The place is special most because of the people I know there," Herington says of the state. "Absolutely playing in New Jersey will be special if I see some of my old friends."
But, he notes, he's more likely to see familiar faces at a gig next month at The Brighton Bar in Long Branch. Mexicali is really the old stomping grounds of his bandmates.
For Pagano, the Teaneck show is particularly exciting. Friends and family always ask where they can see him, and the closest he can usually get them is over the bridge, in New York City.
"I'm always all over the place, never usually in the back yard," he says.
And fans will get twice the Pagano, with his other project, The Harmonious Five, serving as the opening act.
"We do extremely obscure early R&B tunes," he says of The Harmonious Five. "No A sides, all B sides of some really great artists." It's the perfect opener, he says, because it's very vocal and not guitar-heavy like The Jon Herington Band.
Espantman says he's looking forward to the show because of a particular special guest. His old friend from Garfield, Eddie Brigati of the Young Rascals, plans to stop by and sit in.
"He'll do a song or two or three," says Espantman, who is expecting a lot of old friends from Garfield High School to be there.
"It's going to be great," he says. "It's going to be very interesting to see how we've all grown up. Or not."
Smaller venues
Unlike Steely Dan, The Jon Herington Band is built for clubs and smaller venues. "It's more like a conversation," Herington says of a club show. "It's less like we're just doing our thing and you get to watch. It feels more like everybody's there, like you can talk to and see people's faces. For me, I think it just makes it feel more casual, and that's good for the music and the whole vibe."
That atmosphere helps Herington with his main goal.
"I want people to come away with a sense of who we are, not just the music we do," he says. "That's another way to bring people back and that's really what we're trying to do. We're trying to find a way to do this regularly, to grow it over the next several years. I'd like to replace a lot of my other work with this band because this band is more fun than anything I've ever done."
E-mail: yoriok@northjersey.com
