Jon Dixon

Detroit-based musician, producer, bandleader, and educator Jon Dixon provides a direct link between the city’s innovations in jazz and electronic music. A respected and sought-after keyboardist, performer, and session musician, he has played or recorded with numerous orchestras and jazz artists as well as hip-hop and R&B acts. He is an instructor at the Michigan State University Community Music School, where he teaches piano classes. He is also the leader of Timeline and Galaxy 2 Galaxy, the live band formations of the iconic Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance. He founded the independent label 4EVR 4WRD in 2015, and has since issued several solo EPs, including releases under the name minorINVENTION, like 2022′s Coda.
Dixon has played piano by ear since childhood. He studied classical piano and jazz at the High School for Fine and Performing Arts, then performed with the Detroit Symphony Civic Jazz Orchestra, directed by influential trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. He performed with local ensembles, and was an accompanist and bandleader for the Mosaic Youth Theater in Detroit. He joined Underground Resistance’s Timeline in the early 2010s, making his debut with the group on their 2011 EP Graystone Ballroom. He additionally contributed to recordings by Talib Kweli, Jessica Care Moore, Goldie, and others. In 2015, he established 4EVR 4WRD in order to release music which fuses the culture and history of jazz and electronic music. The label was launched with Timeline’s Forever Forward EP (2016), followed by Dixon’s own Fly Free (2017). In 2018, Planet E released Dixon’s EP Erudition (A Tribute to Marcus Belgrave), which featured the late trumpeter as well as UR’s Mad Mike Banks, Timeline saxophonist De'Sean Jones, and trumpeter Kris Johnson. Sampa appeared soon after, and Want It, featuring Amp Fiddler and Dames Brown, was released in 2019. Dixon continued releasing EPs throughout the early 2020s, including Detroit Get Down (featuring a guest appearance by Moodymann) and releases as minorINVENTION, such as 2022′s Coda. ~ Paul Simpson