Ubi re vera

From out of the “blue” comes Leo Donofrio.  It’s kind of like wanting to know about Sarah Palin, but  the MSM went about it in a pretty unfair manner that really told us nothing about what makes her tick.  Hopefully that will come in time, but now back to the man of the hour:  Leo.

Or should I say, “Jet”?  Leo seems to go by various (we should probably call them stage) names including Jet Schizo (SFA band), Jet Wintzer, and Kice Quasar.   He is originally from Queens, NY, studied at St. John’s University and currently is in New Brunswick, NJ.

The only thing I could find out about Leo initially was that he might be a professional poker player.  That was confirmed in his own words on a recent internet radio interview.  He also mentioned that people were saying that he had lost his license to practice law because of illegal gambling so he reupped and is currently a licensed attorney in NJ. 

Being a professional poker player is interesting training for the current challenge he has undertaken.  From the poker player profile at Bluff Magazine we learn that his nickname is “Jet Schizo” which seems a little odd until you learn further on that he is “the ringleader of an esoteric critically acclaimed sonic indie rock band with electro splashes and bossa nova dreams called SCHIZO FUN ADDICT.”   So although there isn’t too much on the net about “Leo”  let’s look and see what there might be related to his ‘other lives’ as musician and professional poker player. 

Jet is a bass player, singer, songwriter and front man of the SFA band.  Their latest album is entitled, Imperial Quasar, with a new one, Sun Yard, in the works.  He has been co-owner of an indie record label, Canarsie, under which at least one previous album was released.  They describe their style of music as ranging from “LO FI white noise drone rock to break beat acid techno to But Baccharach piano ballads.  We are all schizo, one of us hasn’t spoken since the age of four, that’s Jane. The rest of us have way too much to say, especially Jet who never shuts up…ever.”    Following are some reviewer comments about the music of SFA: 

There is no possible way to describe the sheer uncontrived experimental quasar of sound this crew put out…

…Schizo doesn’t so much make music as manufacture holy emotional ordeals, energy transfers, and metaphysical happenings, and musical notes just happen to be the most conducive building blocks toward those ends. It’s about the “aha” moment, the sudden bliss that arrives in the midst of an avalanche of detritus, finding a pattern in the disarray…

Long-time partner in the band is his half-sister Jane Gabriel.  Jane and Jet’s parents met and married when they were kids, several years before this union Jane had a dream whereupon she was visited by angels who told her never to utter a spoken word again unless in song. Bonding over music Jet and Jane – Blondie, Baccharach and hip hop in case you were wondering they started tinkering about making music.

Another clue to the real Leo is in his background as a golf player in college.  He played on Division 1 scholarship for St. John’s University and tried to qualify for The (British) Open Championship in 2000.  He wrote this about the impact of golf rules on his psyche during some musings on the David Blaine Challenge:

I love the game of Golf more than any other game or sport and the reason for this is the duty of HONOR that the great game of Golf demands. A golfer playing for $1,000,000 and the title of, shall we say, The US Open, is bound by his honor to call a penalty on himself even if nobody else sees or knows about it or understands it.

Enough is enough.  I’ll add more to this later, but for now, an interesting picture of a creative, intelligent, and ingenious man is definitely emerging.

See update on Dec 2.  http://ubirevera.blogivists.com/2008/12/02/the-real-leo-c-donofrio-followup/