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Jo Jones
Papa Jo Jones was the drum anchor in the famous All American Rhythm Section by way of his work with Count Basie's band. Jones redefined the concept of a drummer. He lightened up on the four-beats-to-the-bar standard of bass drum playing, was possibly the first to use the ride cymbal as the main timekeeping accessory, and did all with a graceful and light touch. In the history of jazz, Jo Jones was one of the most outstanding drummers, full of sensitivity and style, in addition to an absolutely perfect drumming technique, he really knew, as very few other jazz musicians do, the history of his music.
Jonathan Jones, was born 7 Oct. 1911,in Chicago. He studied music for years, also played piano, reeds and trumpet; then went to Kansas City in 1933, teamed up with Count Basie in 1934 and after a short off on period through 1936, rejoined and stayed until 1948 except while in the US Army. It was in his tenure with Basie on piano, Freddie Green on guitar, and Walter Page on bass, that Jo Jones made and established his enduring reputation.
He minimized the use of the bass drum and kept time on the top cymbal, freeing the drum kit to do more than simply mark time: Kenny Clarke, Max Roach and others developed this in the bop era of the '40s. He was not the only Swing Era drummer to practice the new, lighter concentration on the cymbal, and in later years constant beating of the cymbal by other drummers was often irritating (sometimes because badly recorded); but he did it with such finesse, humour and good taste (rarely taking solos) that he was the most influential of his generation: the rhythm section of the Basie band in its classic years swung like a light, well-oiled machine, and he lifted every session he played on.
He made record dates with Teddy Wilson, and Lionel Hampton, in the years '37 through ‘38, with the Benny Goodman sextet in '41, later appeared on albums with Buck Clayton, Sonny Stitt, Ruby Braff, Paul Quinichette, Coleman Hawkins, Jimmy Rushing, Illinois Jacquet, and Nat Pierce.
Jones toured Europe with Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson '57; and with Jazz at the Philharmonic that year. He led own trios in New York from '57 to ’60, and did some fine dates for Everest in that period as “Jo Jones Trio,” and “Vamp Till Ready,” and “Percussion and Brass.” He somehow also found time to teach and run a music shop.
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Paul Quinichette: Like Basie
by C. Andrew Hovan
Like any business concerned with making a profit, the record industry has often resorted to questionable concepts, tributes, or other hooks to lure more costumers to their product. Currently we find ourselves in an era where the quality of original music is arguably on the decline, thus it has become even more prevalent to use nostalgia as a selling point. While ghost bands and one-off tributes may be a way to bring a new audience to the music of some ...
Continue ReadingRifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones
by David A. Orthmann
Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo JonesAs told to Albert Murray. Edited by Paul Devlin.200 pagesISBN:978-0-8166-7301-8University of Minnesota Press2011Rifftide is a slim volume subtitled The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones. Best known for his long tenure with the Count Basie Orchestra, Papa Jo Jones is arguably the most influential drummer in the history of jazz. Throughout the book, Jones speaks with absolute certainty. His ...
Continue ReadingRifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones
by AAJ Staff
This article appears in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones By Papa Jo Jones As Told to Albert Murray (University of Minnesota Press, 2011). A Different Kind of Living in That Southwest Here is what happened. Basie did exactly what Fats Waller did: all the guys that come under James P. Johnson, you know what I mean, and Willie “The Lion" Smith, they stayed playing that Harlem ...
Continue ReadingPaul Quinichette & His Basie-ites: Like Basie
by Nic Jones
Like Basie has already seen the light of day in the CD era as an OJC release, but given its qualities, its reappearance here is welcome anyway. Paul Quinichette's career was perhaps more dogged than aided by the lazy “Vice-Pres" tag that was placed upon him because of his stylistic allegiance to Lester Young. As ever the details of the matter were somewhat different. His work was in fact rhythmically far less oblique, whilst the timbre of his playing was ...
Continue ReadingJo Jones: The Everest Years
by David Rickert
Jo Jones's reputation rests solely on his stint with Count Basie, but that's like saying that Humphrey Bogart is known only for his acting. Jones, along with Freddie Green, Walter Page, and Basie, virtually invented the concept of swing. As a unit, they powered the Basie band through a series of top-notch records. But what did Jones do after that?
For one thing, he recorded a few albums as a leader. These sessions, done for the Everest label ...
Continue ReadingQuincy Jones in Paris, 1957-1960
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
It is impossible to fully appreciate the delight of the late Quincy Jones without doing a deep dive into his years in Paris. From 1957 to 1960, Jones studied composition and theory there with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen, performed at the Paris Olympia, toured Europe and became music director at Barclay Records. The French label founded by Eddie Barclay not only released albums on its Barclay label but also had a licensing agreement with Mercury to release Barclay product ...
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Quincy Jones (1933-2024)
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Quincy Jones, whose name became synonymous with excellence in music and whose contributions to jazz opened a new age of swinging elegance influenced by French pop and modern classical, died on November 3. He was 91. Rather than write again about Jones's many accomplishments, I feel it's more illustrative to listen to his career in 14 clips. Please note that this merely scratches the surface: Here's Jones's composition Work of Art recorded by the Art Farmer Septet in July 1953, ...
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Bernell Jones II CD Release Event On August 2nd At Heaven Can Wait
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Scott Thompson Public Relations
Originally from Memphis, TN, Bernell Jones II is an NYC-based multi-instrumentalist experienced in multiple forms of Black American Music. At age ten, Bernell first picked up his primary instrument, the saxophone. Bernell dropped his new single “Don't Know Why" featuring vocalist Jazzmine James on May 28th. This new release entitled Typewriter is expressed in R&B, funk and fusion. “I am 26 years old at the time of the release of my first ambitious project, Typewriter. At this age, I have ...
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Perfection: Quincy Jones - Funk Junction
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
On December 7, 1954, Quincy Jones was conducting a band playing his arrangements backing vocalese artist King Pleasure. During the session for Prestige, two Jones instrumentals were slipped in—"You're Crying" and “Funk Junction." The additions were either needed to complete the album because there weren't enough King Pleasure tracks—or there was time remaining on the session and Jones figured he'd use the spare minutes to squeeze out B-sides for King Pleasure's A-sidees for jukeboxes. Or both assumptions may have be ...
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Backgrounder: Quincy Jones - Twilight Time
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Early in March, I posted a Backgrounder on a 1957 album arranged by Quincy Jones in Paris. In the U.S., the LP was released by United Artists and was called Americans in Paris. In France, it came out on Barclay and was known as Et Voila! The album was recorded with Eddie Barclay, the owner of the Barclay label and its music director at the time who hired most of the French musicians in the band. He soon would offer ...
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Alfredo Dias Gomes Releases 'Tributo A Elvin Jones,' In Honor Of The Legendary Jazz Drummer
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Alfredo Dias Gomes
Accompanied by a respected team of musicians (Jessé Sadoc, trumpet and flugelhorn; David Feldman, piano; Jefferson Lescowich, acoustic bass), Rio de Janeiro drummer Alfredo Dias Gomes released Tributo a Elvin Jones. Recorded in his home studio with sound engineer Thiago Kropf, the album arrived on digital platforms (Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon and YouTube Music) on March 1st. “The fascination with Elvin Jones’ style is longstanding,” says Gomes. “The first time I saw him play was on a VHS video ...
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Backgrounder: Quincy Jones - Americans in Paris
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1957, Quincy Jones moved to Paris to study composition and theory with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. In his spare time, the producer, composer, arranger, bandleader and conductor became music director at Barclay, a French record company owned by Eddie Barclay, a composer-arranger and contractor. Barclay also was the licensee for Mercury in France. Jones's first album for the label was Et Voila!, which was released on United Artists in the U.S. as Americans in Paris. In addition to ...
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Four Videos: Papa Jo Jones
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Few drummers make me smile more than Jo Jones. Jones began playing in the 1920s and is probably best known for playing with Count Basie's earliest band in 1934. He was one of the first drummers to make use of the brushes and among the first to steer timekeeping away from the bass drum and turn it over to the hi-hat cymbal, producing what today is jazz's familiar modern sound. In short, he was the Louis Armstrong of the drum ...
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Jo Jones: The Drums, 1973
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
We tend to think of jazz drummers simply as guys who are fast with a set of sticks or brushes and good at keeping time. But like all great jazz musicians, the best drummers know the instrument's long history and the styles of all those who came before them. This was especially true of Jo Jones, who pioneered new ways of the drums while in Count Basie's band starting in 1936. Jones took on the honorific “Papa" in later years ...
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Enter the "Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones" Giveaway at All About Jazz!
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All About Jazz
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