Jon Negus grew up in Princeton, NJ where he showed an amazing aptitude for music and theater at a very early age. After studying jazz saxophone at the University of Miami, he became a member of the Chicago music community in 1981. Starting at Com/Track, Inc. (a venerable Chicago commercial music production company), his instruments, vocals and writing have been heard on hundreds of commercials worldwide.
Momcat Music (Formerly Momcat Productions, Inc.) was created by Jon in 1986. Momcat is a music production company that provides music for a variety of clients including advertising, corporate, film scoring, songwriting, arranging, recording, etc.
Jon has extensive experience in children’s music. He has produced over 70 CDs for the pre-school music curriculum “Kindermusik”. He recorded and produced 3 albums for Carus Publishing (Lady Bug and Cricket Magazines). For Willow Creek Community Church Jon has co-produced 7 albums for the children’s area of the church called “Promiseland”.
In the music publishing industry, Jon has produced instrumental accompaniment tracks for Choral works by Sally Allbrecht and Andy Beck (Alfred Publishing) and early childhood music tracks for Karen Surmani (Alfred Publishing). He has arranged and played horns on gospel choral works by Rollo Dillworth (Hal Leonard Publishing) and has been a featured woodwind specialist for Tom Anderson (Hal Leonard).
In the retail business, Jon created music for Tiger Toy’s robot products 2-XL and Alphie. The music for this was post-scored in the styles associated with the subject matter. Content included music tracks patterned after: Star Trek, Spiderman, X-Men, Tales from the Crypt, Superman, Batman, Power Rangers, Ripley’s Believe it or not and Jurassic Park.
In the corporate world, he has written and scored short film projects for such companies as American Express, Ace Hardware, Allstate, ABC Roofing, Sears, HFC, JDA, Abbott Labs, McDonald’s, Motorola, Devry Institute and many others.
He has written and performed on the scores for several independent films including “Accidents“, “The Story of Daniel”, “The Legends of Cuba Road”, “Uninvited”, “Two Wrongs”, “Off Loop”, “Return to Cuba Road”, “I Grew Up in Princeton”, “Exit Laughing” (in production), “Harry and Claire (in production), and the web series “Brightside”.
As a woodwind player, he has played in a variety of situations including recording sessions, jazz, rock and dance bands, big bands, and theatre pits. His instruments are soprano-alto-tenor saxes, clarinet, piccolo, flute, alto flute, wx wind synthesizer, sopranino-soprano-alto-tenor recorders.
Vocally, Jon has been a member of the bass section for The Lakeside Singers (a professional choir that does everything from renaissance to rock) since 1999. Besides singing, he has also done more than 50 choral arrangements for The Lakeside Singers and played countless instruments.
Jon has played woodwinds and/or keyboards and/or vocals in backup bands for many artists over the years including Gladys Knight and the Pips, Yolanda Adams, Celine Dion, Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, Bob Hope, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor, the Lennon Sisters, Styx, Eddie Arnold, Enuff Z’nuff, The Temptations, Joan Rivers, Denis Leary and Dennis DeYoung.