The Marco Polo of Spin

Arlo Hennings first met Leonardo Pavkovic at a music business conference in Bali.

The event was called IMEX 2012 aka Indonesian Music Expo (now defunct) in Bali, Nusa Dua, Indonesia.

At the conference, Pavkovic learned that Hennings was the former Director of Universal Music Publishing, Los Angeles.

After the event, Pavkovic sent Hennings an email and offered to meet him in Jakarta.

From their first meeting, Hennings has not stopped wondering who Leonardo Pavkovic is.

An excerpt from one PR blurp in Downbeat compared Pavkovic to Marco Polo but the man Hennings did business with for the next two years didn't match the profile. 

Marco Polo was a merchant explorer but he and his ghostwriter, Rustichello, were prone to exaggeration and flights of fancy.

Music scribes described Pavkovic as a "music visionary" for his curatorial music taste in the unusual.

The beyond, non-categorizable genres of music he distributed on his boutique MoonJune label.

The record company he claimed, "made no money" and some of the artists "paid him."

Leonardo Pavkovic was raised by an Italian stepfather. He grew up in Bosnia and went to college in Italy and North Africa. According to his bio, he majored in Literature in college.

He landed in Brazil and married a Chinese woman. The couple immigrated to New York in the 90s, where he landed a job at a graphics shop called Studio T Design in New York City.

We'll never know how a fresh-of-the-boat immigrant with no experience landed the graphics job but according to legend he self-taught himself design software and not only managed to advance on the job and also leveraged it to schmooze the music clientele. 

Studio T is gone so without interviewing the employer we have a one-sided story.

The story goes he befriended a few musicians at his graphics job and met members of the old progressive rock band Soft Machine including the jazz guitar impresario Allan Holdsworth. Pavkovic became Holdsworth's manager and agent.

Hennings doesn't know the particulars of why an artist like Holdsworth with a substantial cult following and track record would enlist a person like Pavkovic with no music business experience to represent him.

A good guess is that no one else wanted the job.

Hennings sat at the restaurant table in a Jakarta hotel and Pavkovic gave him the sales pitch.

Pavkovic's latest vision was "MoonJune Asia."

He offered no detail. Only it would be great! And, there was room for Hennings at the top like all his special pals.

The overweight man who allegedly could speak five foreign languages fluently spoke with a hard-to-understand Slavic accent.

Pavkovic gave Hennings an overview of his record label and booking business.

After Pavkovic told Hennings about his MoonJune roster, none he had heard of before. But, deeper research revealed they were of exceptional caliber like Holdsworth but mostly known within musician circles.

The music was cool but not commercial. Being small and not commercial is not bad.

How he financially survived was the question.

Pavkovic changed the subject and shared he was to undergo knee and eye surgery in New York.

He explained the medical bill would be paid by State Medicaid insurance. Hennings knew only people with poverty-level incomes are eligible for State insurance.

Hennings took a long sip of coffee.

How does the post-modern Marco Polo who has visited 90 countries on income from booking a small roster of obscure acts and a handful of CDs?

He and his Chinese wife were living in a multi-million dollar condo in Manhattan.

Never mind, Hennings thought. He added more sugar to his coffee. If it wasn't weird it wouldn't be rock 'n' roll. And Pavkovic was a music impresario.

Hennings speculated MoonJune operated partially on gaslight.

Pavkovic admitted his experience in the music business was limited. After all, the skills required to be a manager or booking agent are mainly the drive to pick up the phone.

The main reason Pavkovic wanted Hennings help was music publishing. As the former director of Artist Relations, North America, PolyGram Music International Hennings was an expert.

They concluded their breakfast and his sales pitch ended. Would Hennings like to be his "associate" under the "auspices" of MoonJune engaged in what he called a "pal deal?"

Pavkovic continued, "I don't sign contracts. MoonJune is one big family. I only work with friends."

What that meant to Hennings was his business is less than a handshake. It was air. As long as there's nothing in writing, he can't be held accountable for anything.

After being in the music business for 50 years how could Hennings say no?

Hennings heard words like "pal deal" following vague details before. "Don't worry trust me," and promises of the extraordinary.

Experience told Hennings to run and don't look back. But, who was the moon-man with the 15 Indonesian CD releases? Which didn't make money but they were interesting.

They struck a deal, Pavkovic would pay 50% of his local airfare and hotel expenses and money from the publishing royalties was to be split 60/40.

The MoonJune mission was to forge new relationships and spread goodwill on MoonJune's behalf.

In addition, convinced his Indonesian roster to sign an American music publishing contract.

Besides the promise to promote his name on the Moonjune website and introduce him to the Moonjune family (neither of which happened) Whatever else was in this "pal deal," Hennings didn't know.

Even though Hennings was aware another music industry executive had left MoonJune (Derek Shulman), citing his disbelief in Indonesia, Hennings was looking for something to do.

So he went along with the crazy scheme.

For two years, armed with his MoonJune business card, Hennings crawled through the worst traffic in the world.

Hennings got the Indonesian artists to sign their publishing contract but Leonardo threw the contracts away without explanation. The artists, too naïve to understand, asked no questions or they didn't care.

The artists did not receive sales reports or royalties and in some cases they paid him. One complained, "Why am I paying for my CDs?"

Artists starving for any recognition felt it was "better than nothing."

Launched in 2001, MoonJune Records had no legal business registration in New York.

MoonJune Booking Agency is the main source of revenue for Pavkovic's operation.

According to an interview on Youtube Pavkovic booked over 2,600 shows since he started. How he kept track of his bookings and not music sales is a good question.

However, according to the Association of Talent Agencies in New York, MoonJune or Pavkovic has no license to operate an agency.

None of that matters anymore because Pavkovic moved to Toledo, Spain in 2021.

Years later many key Indonesian music shakers and artists died.

Opening up a new music market in a foreign country was an ambitious idea but it didn't work out.

Five out of the seven Indonesians on MoonJune were wealthy so they suffered no loss. Selling CDs was beside the point if some international publicity could be realized to help raise their profile.

Today, Dwiki Dharmawan and Dewa Budjana two of the wealthiest musicians remain active in MoonJune projects.

In some cases, Pavkovic did accomplish the publicity. But it was not enough to keep the moon in the sky.

MoonJune stopped releasing new Indonesian music.

Hennings is grateful to learn about many great artists.

Today, Pavkovic continues to promote his special pals under the "modus moonjundi" to spread unity, joy, and hope through music, toward the elusive goal of peace and understanding on this troubled earth.