Jon Wood is an active professional musician based in the Milwaukee Wisconsin area and a transplant from the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Jon has experience performing on guitar, electric and upright bass, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, and cajon. Venues Jon has performed at include Jazz Central Studios in Minneapolis for their Monday Night Artist Feature and Thursday Night Vocal Series, the Artist's Quarter in St. Paul, the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, Saturday Night Jazz at the Black Dog, The St. Paul Art Crawl, Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theater and School, Honey Restaurant, Bedlam Theater, Thursday Musical, Minnesota Public Radio's KBEM 88.5, and a performance at Orchestra Hall that was nationally re-broadcast by Twin Cities Public Television (TPT). Jon has performed in the Milwaukee area at the Jazz Estate, Vendetta Coffee Bar, and Bar Centro along with performances in Madison and Chicago including Mason Lounge, North Street Cabaret, Cafe Coda, and Davenport Cabaret.

Jon regularly performs for private parties, weddings, musicals, and restaurants. Jon has at different times been a member of the Cedar Avenue Big Band, The Jazz on The Prairie Big Band, and a regular sub for four other big bands in the Twin Cities area including Acme Jazz Company Big Band. Jon has experience performing in pit orchestras across the Twin Cities and has performed on guitar, bass, mandolin, ukulele, and banjo in Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma, Shrek, and several other musical productions.

In addition to being a member of several bands, Jon is also the leader of two of his own ensembles: Iron Chops, a jazz group comprising his original music and arrangements of standards, and Strange Ear Riddle, a classical music ensemble. The most compelling element of Jon's performances are the diverse range of styles he plays: classical, jazz, gypsy jazz, tango, Mediterranean music, Latin jazz, bossa nova and samba, flamenco, blues,  R & B, rock & roll, pop, folk, blue grass, country and more. Jon is currently a member of the Milwaukee group Jazz Flux with whom he has performed in Milwaukee, Madison, Shaboygan, and Chicago.

Along with his performing background, Jon is also involved in music education. As a private studio instructor Jon has taught several styles of music on guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, and ukulele (all instruments on which he has had professional performing experience). Along with private instruction Jon also has taught at Schmitt Music in Wayzata and Groth Music in Bloomington. Jon was an assistant instructor at University of St. Thomas (UST) in the spring of 2012 for the guitar pedagogy class for music education majors and he directed the UST guitar ensemble in their Fall 2011 performances. Jon was a graduate assistant at Illinois State University (ISU) where he taught guitar to music therapy and music education majors, directed a guitar small ensemble, and handled other administrative duties for the department and the ISU guitar society. Jon was also an adjunct professor for guitar and bass at Lincoln College in Lincoln Illinois. 

In addition to teaching,Jon's studies also included an independent study research project during his masters degree on guitar pedagogy and technique that he is currently working on turning into a book. While in graduate school Jon had the opportunity to study privately with Rene Izquerdo (http://reneizquierdoguitar.com) at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Jon received his bachelor of arts in music and economics in 2013 at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul MN and a masters degree in classical guitar performance at Illinois State University in 2017.

Jon has several CDs that you can hear and download on this website under "CDs and Band" featuring his original jazz compositions (Far From Home), a solo classical guitar album (Chitarra Sonata), a live recording of Jon’s master of music recital at ISU (Dirty), and several live albums of Jon's band "Iron Chops.” Jon was interviewed about his first two studio albums by Phil Nusbaum on Minnesota Public Radio's KBEM 88.5fm jazz radio station for their Twin Cities Weekend series  (Jazz88, http://jazz88.mpls.k12.mn.us/ ). You can hear the interview below.

In September 2019 Jon moved to Milwaukee Wisconsin where he has since studied classical guitar technique and performance with Rene Izquierdo (http://reneizquierdoguitar.com) and Elina Chekan. Jon is currently writing a book whose format will be similar to pumping Nylon and that will combine Jon’s study with Mr. Izquerdo with the writings of Abel Carlevaro and Ricarod Iznaola along with Jon’s own system of anatomical language to describe Mr. Izquierdo’s technique in a way that will hopefully allow Mr. Izquiredo’s technique to be more widely understood, learned, and taught. Research for Jon’s book is scheduled to be presented at the 2025 Guitar Federation of America Research Symposium.

While in Milwaukee Jon has participated in flamenco dance and studied with Marija Temo. Jon also tours in Milwaukee/Madison/Chicago with the local jazz group Jazz Flux. Jon is a regular local jazz performer on guitar and electric and upright bass and has played at Blu, Caroline’s, Vendetta Coffee Bar, and his quartet has also been featured at Milwaukee’s Jazz Estate.

In February 2024 Jon recorded a CD with his Minneapolis Minnesota based group Iron Chops where the group played a song from each style/era of jazz, paired it with a guitar from that time, and also highlighted lesser known guitarists from that style and time period. Link to YouTube video and audio recording can be found below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeabajlF1ZHxi1Kzvx0XqY0xz5YVdse7l

In February of 2025 Jon recorded another recording with his band Iron Chops, this time however Jon focused on modern jazz sounds like stereo guitar and effects pedals and comparatively modern compositions. Link can be found below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeabajlF1ZHzECL91eRO0yCcdTbdNSozb

Recordings of Jon’s Milwaukee trio/quartet can be found at the playlist below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeabajlF1ZHw2MWs98HDQVVjTKoA9NNZj