.jpg)
.jpg)
James Henry Jones (December 30, 1918, Memphis, Tennessee – April 29, 1982,Burbank, California)[1] was an Americanjazz pianist and arranger.
Jones was born in Memphis but raised inChicago.[2] As a child, he learned guitar and piano.[1] Jones notes that playing guitar "influenced my piano harmonically ... in thinking in terms of groups of notes rather than single lines .... [W]hen I played guitar it was more or less in a chord style likeWes Montgomery's."[3]
Jones worked in Chicago orchestras from 1936 and played in a trio withStuff Smith from 1943 to 1945.[1] He made his first recordings, under Smith's leadership, in 1944.[4] Following this, he played withDon Byas,Dizzy Gillespie (1945),J.C. Heard (1945–47),Buck Clayton (1946) andEtta Jones.[1] He also recorded a series of piano solos in 1947, includingDebussy's Clair de lune and works byDuke Ellington andJuan Tizol. Jazz criticStanley Dance notes, "From the very beginning, Jones insisted, his greatest inspiration was Duke Ellington, and he had been encouraged in this by his parents, who took him to hear Ellington whenever he played in Chicago."[5] Jones also particularly admiredArt Tatum and considered him to be "the quintessential pianist."[6] Anatol Schenker called Jones' 1947 solo recordings "extraordinary," noting his "delicate and highly personal use of block chords .... His playing on these solos makes one ponder whether Jimmy Jones played on a fragile keyboard made of glass."[7]
Jones accompaniedSarah Vaughan from 1947 to 1952 and then again from 1954 to 1958 after a long illness,[1] becoming her musical director.[8] In 1954, he made a trio recording, played on a classic album with Vaughan andClifford Brown, and accompanied the latter on his European tour. Just a week after the Vaughan/Brown album, he recorded another classic album with Brown andHelen Merrill. In 1958, he accompaniedAnita O'Day in her celebrated appearance at theNewport Jazz Festival, documented in the filmJazz on a Summer's Day, and worked with other singers such asDakota Staton,Pat Suzuki, andMorgana King around this time. Jones enjoyed the challenge of being an accompanist and said, "You always have to be musically aware. Listen to the great accompanists—Bobby Tucker withBilly Eckstine,Hank Jones with Ella,Ellis Larkins. They illustrate what I mean."[9]
As a pianist and arranger in New York City,[1] he worked in the 1960s withHarry Belafonte,Johnny Hodges,Budd Johnson,Nat Gonella, andClark Terry, among others. He accompaniedChris Connor on her version of "Where Flamingoes Fly" and played with Ellington's orchestra on recordings withElla Fitzgerald for the albumElla at Duke's Place.[1] Jones also "occasionally sat in for [Ellington] and rehearsed with the orchestra" and became Fitzgerald's musical director.[10] He enjoyed "a very long and close musical relationship with Ellington and [Billy] Strayhorn."[11]
Jones did a set with his trio (Jimmy Hughart andGrady Tate) at the Antibes Jazz Festival in 1966 and the following year toured withJazz at the Philharmonic. In the 1970s, he worked withKenny Burrell andCannonball Adderley. Although "gravely ill," Jones participated in Burrell'sEllington Is Forever tribute recordings,[12] contributing a brief solo version of Strayhorn's "Take the "A" Train" as the first volume's closer. "As Jimmy sounded the final note ...Jerome Richardson murmured with awe, 'He got everything there was to get out of that. He has just put it in requiem status.'"[13] However, lack of interest led Jones to return to his hometown of Memphis "[c]ompletely disillusioned."[14]
In the course of his career, Jones played piano on recordings byHarry Sweets Edison,Ben Webster,Big Joe Turner,Coleman Hawkins,Frank Wess,Milt Jackson,Sidney Bechet,Sonny Rollins,Sonny Stitt, andThad Jones, among others, and worked as an arranger for Wes Montgomery,Nancy Wilson,Sandler and Young,Shirley Horn,Joe Williams,Billy Taylor,Carmen McRae, and Chris Connor, becoming "[o]ne of the most sought after arrangers in New York."[15]
Schenker called Jones "a very competent occasionally dazzling pianist with an extremely elaborate technique and technical skills. His modern way of arranging is well recognized, too."[16] Jordi Pujol notes that Jones possessed "an uncanny ability to strike a delicate balance of restraint and richness" in his playing.[17]Dave Brubeck cited Jones as an influence and said of him: "He didn't like to solo. Harmonically, though, he was one of the greatest players I ever heard."[18]
WithKenny Burrell
WithJohnny Griffin
WithIllinois Jacquet
WithThad Jones
WithBeverly Kenney
WithHelen Merrill
WithJoe Newman
WithPaul Quinichette
WithSonny Stitt
WithClark Terry
WithSarah Vaughan
WithBen Webster
WithLee Wiley
WithNancy Wilson
WithJohnny Hodges
WithMilt Jackson
WithBilly Taylor
WithNancy Wilson
