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With Bill Clinton

With Late Show with David
Letterman bassist Will Lee

“Jon continues to push the boundaries in a sincere and humble way. He’s the rare guy
who’s doing work that matters while following his calling.”

— Josh Linkner

A friend hired him to do some
musical arranging, and he realized
he was good at it. Soon he was
writing and arranging for a variety
of TV shows, including the Tonight
Show, the Late Show and Miami
Vice. He recalls the thrill he felt
when he watched the Tonight Show
with Johnny Carson and realized
the band was playing notes he had
written.
He was getting steady work writ-
ing, arranging and playing in Los
Angeles, but after he and his first
wife divorced in 1992 he decided
to base himself in Michigan to be
closer to his son Josh, then 5.
With a passion for business
second only to his passion for
music, Liebman joined the fam-
ily enterprise, the Specs Howard
School (where his father, now 90,
is still a daily presence). Starting
as a marketing analyst, he rose to
president and CEO. He gave up the
day-to-day operations in 2008 —
his brother, Marty, is now president
— to concentrate on external rela-
tions and long-term planning as
chairman and CEO.
Jon Liebman served on the
board of JVS for six years and has
been active with several Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
committees.
Soon after Liebman returned to
Michigan, a friend suggested he
write about some of his bass tech-
niques. His first book, Funk Bass,
was published in 1992. Five more
books of bass instruction followed.
His seventh book, Play Like Jaco
Pastorius: The Ultimate Bass Lesson
(Hal Leonard) and a companion

Jaco Pastorius Bass Play-Along, will
be published this summer.
Liebman considers Pastorius,
who died in 1987 at age 35, to be
the greatest bass player who ever
lived. Preparing the play-along
book and accompanying CD was a
challenge, he said, because he had
to play the way Pastorius played.
Liebman’s books have been
translated into French, German
and Japanese, and have sold hun-
dreds of thousands of copies.
Dan Hildebrant, 32, an elec-
tric bass player who grew up in
Farmington Hills and now lives in
Redwood City, Calif., is a fan.
“A friend recommended his
books Funk Bass and Funk Fusion
Bass when I was 17,” Hildebrandt
said. “I found the instruction tech-

niques and the bass lines in his
books to be so well structured and
funky that I brought them both to
California with me, and now I am
teaching some of his techniques and
grooves to my own bass students.”
A suggestion from a fan in
England inspired Liebman to
develop his online presence, and he
launched ForBassPlayersOnly.com
in 2009. The site has news articles,
an online store with bass-related
books (including his own), CDs,
DVDs and more, and interviews
with more than 400 bass players,
including Paul McCartney and
bassists from bands like Metallica,
Black Sabbath and Aerosmith.
The same year, he launched
JonLiebman.com, a platform for
bass instruction, with video les-

sons — 99 so far — for students at
all levels. Students can buy an “all
access pass” for $12.99 a month.
And last April, Liebman launched
ForGuitarPlayersOnly.com, and he
plans similar sites for pianists and
drummers.
Music journalist Gary Graff, for-
merly with the Detroit Free Press,
writes many of the articles on the
guitar website.
“Jon is the rare guy who’s not
only a great player but also knows
how to teach, and especially how to
convey feeling and nuance and pas-
sion in playing as well as technical
skills,” Graff said. “His enthusiasm
for music and for the culture of
music and the camaraderie of
musicians really gives his enter-
prises a unique perspective that

sets them apart from others.”
For many years Liebman was a
one-man band. “I was Employee of
the Month every month,” he joked.
His business is still based in the
West Bloomfield home he shares
with his wife, Mindy, and the
youngest two of their four children.
But he has hired a staff writer, a
webmaster and a social media
expert, and he’s considering adding
marketing and administrative staff.
His online presence is grow-
ing. His For Bass Players Only
Facebook page has more than
100,000 likes, with about 1,000
new fans joining every week.
Liebman’s long-range vision is to
expand into websites for the vari-
ous instrument groups (strings,
woodwinds, brass, percussion),
music genres (jazz, rock, classi-
cal and more) and careers (music
engineering, songwriting, compos-
ing, arranging, music therapy).
He wants the Notehead Media
Group sites to be a comprehensive
resource for musicians, music stu-
dents and music enthusiasts.
Liebman’s friend Josh Linkner,
a tech entrepreneur and jazz gui-
tarist, says Liebman has the right
combination of skills to pull it off.
“Jon is a passionate musician,
educator and business leader. I
have deep respect for his thought-
fulness in the board room and his
artistic fire when behind the bass,”
Linkner said.
“He continues to push the
boundaries in a sincere and
humble way. He’s the rare guy who’s
doing work that matters while fol-
lowing his calling.”

*

July 21 • 2016

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