Welcome to Our Jam Sessions!
Join us on a musical adventure! We’re an East Coast jam band infused with the spirit of the Grateful Dead. With every performance, we blend improvisation and energy, creating a sound that inspires connection and joy. Dive into our world of rhythm and melody, and get ready for an unforgettable experience!
JOHN TRUPP
Guitar and Vocals
John Trupp is a native of Washington, DC and has been extraordinarily active in the east coast music scene. He has been fortunate to perform many thousands of concerts on many of the east coast’s finest stages. John is thrilled to be a part of JLB as guitarist, singer and songwriter. Like John and Stephen, he is a member of New Potato Caboose and toured the east coast relentlessly with that band for years. After the New Potato Caboose heyday, John began frequently recording on albums with Grammy winner and legendary producer John Alagia and super producer Doug Derryberry at their highly successful studio and performed on countless albums with various artists.
John produces and engineers recordings and full albums at his recording studio in Washington DC. He has won an array of awards for music and graphic design. John also has many songs placed in movies and television, including recent placements on The Young and The Restless on CBS. John was also involved with numerous video productions for MHz and Exuberant TV while working with Grammy winner Scott Shuman.
John is a member of the Recording Academy (The Grammys), is a board member emeritus of the Songwriters Association of Washington (SAW), and does community service through affiliations with Rotary International. He also does a lot of studio work as a musician and producer, and hosts and promotes local concerts. He hosted DC’s longest running Songwriter Showcase and promotes and develops new talent in the region. He has two wonderful children and resides in Maryland with his lovely wife Katherine. And let’s not forget, John is still the unofficial mayor of Derwood.
STEVE LEROY
Bass and Vocals
Steve’s first instrument was the trumpet at eight, but in true rock-and-roll fashion he publicly destroyed his horn so completely that his dad tried (in vain) to patch it back together with a blowtorch. Fast-forward past a few piano and guitar lessons that never really took, Steve was fifteen when he grabbed hold of a friend’s bass and was immediately hooked. Borrowing a knock-off P-bass from his high school (which he also eventually destroyed), Steve was soon playing for hours a day, copying what he heard in the mixes of Cream, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles. Before long he joined his first band, and though he’s not sure they even had a name, he remembers they took second place in his school’s Battle of the Bands. New heroes emerged in the music of Herbie Hancock & the Headhunters, Sly & the Family Stone, and James Brown, and at Georgetown University in 1992 he co-founded the erstwhile popular funk band Perfunktory. After graduating he moved to New York and gravitated towards the jam band scene, playing clubs like the Wetlands and the Knitting Factory. Around the millennium he recorded and toured with the jam band mindface, and he still plays with his musical brothers in NY/NJ’s Shark Hat (formerly Blunt Force). He has recorded and performed with a great many very fine musicians up and down the east coast, and he no longer destroys his instruments, at least not on purpose.
Steve lives in Washington, DC with his wife and three children. He teaches guitar, bass, ukulele, songwriting, and music theory and is the cofounder of Rock The Hill, a rock & roll enrichment program for kids focusing on semi-private instruction, group jam sessions, and live show production. Steve has played with John Trupp for about a decade in various acts around DC. One of Steve’s more specialized talents is his ability to learn a lot of music very quickly, and this has come in handy in absorbing the JLB repertoire. He is thrilled to be a part of this epic powerhouse and would very much like to see you at the next show.
JOHN MCCONNELL
Drums
Music has always been a principal force in the life of DC native John McConnell. Having grown up listening to recordings of his grandfather’s band Ajax Big Band, John’s own journey as a musician started in 3rd grade playing drums with John Trupp; a collaboration continuing to this day. By their collegiate years, McConnell and Trupp had developed a knack for the fills, depths, and flourishes only double drum jamming can create. Around this time, one of the members of McConnell’s band Point of Departure was living at the infamous St Perry House, the old home and HQ of the first NPC members. McConnell was quickly welcomed into the jams, sharing in the musical and personal chemistry of NPC. By 1985, the NPC was solid with its fresh and rocking rhythm section.
In 1992, McConnell & Trupp started pursuing their own band, The True, resulting in touring & recording projects with producer John Alagia as well as two developmental record deals. When not on the road with The True, McConnell worked as a promotor rep. for Cellar Door, bringing names like The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel & The Grateful Dead to the DC Metro area. Throughout this time, McConnell & Trupp continued to perform with members of NPC, whetting the appetite, and setting the stage for what would become the legendary NPC reunions.
In 1996 McConnell married his wife Elizabeth and moved to Morgantown WV, where he instantly immersed himself in the local music scene, co-founding bands Helicopter Collective and SaborLatino, two bands which continue to play the WV, Pittsburgh, and Western Maryland markets. In the early 2000s, Johns company Blue Dolphin Productions was instrumental in the reopening of the historic Metropolitan Theatre, where John brought in national acts such as the Wailers and Yonder Mountain String Band. John is also an organizer of Morgantown’s famous LennonThing, a celebration of all songs Lennon, played in a festival-like atmosphere with all proceeds benefitting local food charities. John has been named one of the most influential people of Morgantown by the Dominion Post for his work in revitalizing the Arts in the City.