Jo Jones

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Jonathan "Jo" Jones (born October 7, 1911 in Chicago , Illinois , † September 3, 1985 in New York City ) was a style - setting American jazz drummer. He revolutionized the use of drums in jazz by moving the jazz beat from the bass drum to the hi-hat "and thus gave the music space and breath" ( Hans-Jürgen Schaal ). He was initially best known as the drummer of the Count Basie Orchestra , with whom he worked from 1935 to 1948. In the last years of his life he performed under the name Papa Jo Jones .

Life

Jones, who grew up in Alabama , first learned the saxophone , trumpet and piano in order to begin a career as a tap dancer and singer. He first played with the Blue Devils of Walter Page in Oklahoma City . He then worked in the Lloyd Hunter band in Nebraska before moving to Kansas City in 1933. There he played in the Territory Band of Tommy Douglas , in 1934 with Bennie Moten and then in the Count Basie Orchestra , with which he remained until the late 1940s. After touring with Jazz at the Philharmonic , he played with Illinois Jacquet (1948/49), Lester Young (1950/51) and Joe Bushkin , before becoming a freelancer in New York. In 1957 he came to Europe with Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson . At the Newport Jazz Festival 1958 he accompanied the singer Big Maybelle together with Buck Clayton .

From the late 1950s he led his own bands. He first recorded for Vanguard (1955, 1959, produced by John Hammond ) and Everest (1959–1960), then again for Jazz Odyssey (1970), and later for Pablo and Denon ; Jones directed one of his All Star formations in 1976 when he recorded The Main Man with Harry Sweets Edison , Roy Eldridge , Vic Dickenson , Eddie Lockjaw Davis , Tommy Flanagan , Freddie Green and Sam Jones . In 1985 he was awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship .

He also starred in various music films, most notably Jammin 'the Blues (1944) and The Sound of Jazz (1957).

music

Jones expanded the art of drumming through his own style, which he developed by 1934. His new ideas form the basis for modern drumming, which were later musically developed by Kenny Clarke , Max Roach and many others. In contrast to his contemporaries Gene Krupa , Cozy Cole and Chick Webb , he rarely played longer solos. He was one of the first drummers who demonstrated the use of brooms and made the possibilities known. He also moved the basic rhythm from the bass drum to the hi-hat cymbal, which became the most important part of his drum set .

In contrast to drummer Gene Krupa, who played the bass drum heavily and persistently weighty on every quarter of a bar, Jones often didn't play the bass drum at all. Jones kept playing a continuous timing rhythm on the hi-hat as it kept pacing up and down, as opposed to the usual practice of the hi-hat only striking when it was closed. This style of Jones influenced the tendency of modern jazz drummers to play the basic rhythm of the time on a free undamped hanging cymbal, which has since been known as the ride cymbal , the "continuous cymbal", because it is played continuously.

Jones himself spoke of a "singin 'hi-hat" for the springy, slightly driving beat, which is sometimes so strongly syncopated that it sometimes seems to be played backwards. He designed the beat by playing it legato . He set accents and also calculated counter-rhythms. He supported the thematic work in some cases considerably by playing the frontman's theme rhythmically exactly. This stylistic device is used even more accentuated by modern drummers, and the theme melody is "sung along" on the cymbals in the same way.

He enjoyed the privilege of playing in the rhythm section of the Count Basie Orchestra, which included Basie on piano (since 1936) Walter Page on bass and Freddie Green on guitar. This rhythm section, in which he developed the 4/4 swing, was remembered by Paul Whiteman as the All-American Rhythm Section . He has also recorded with Benny Goodman , Billie Holiday , Duke Ellington , Teddy Wilson , Lester Young , Johnny Hodges and Art Tatum .

Quotes

"He laid down things that we consider to be natural laws today."

- Billy Hart

"I don't know where he got it from, the way Jo played was something very special, as gentle as you would actually like every drummer to be, and so easy."

- Gus Johnson

"He combines unbelievable technology with ease, humor and precision."

- John Hammond

"I've seen him play things on the drums that no one has ever seen before."

- Oliver Jackson

“Jo Jones reminds me of the wind. He is in a class of his own and stands above all drummers I have ever heard in my life. "

- Don Lamond

"The man who seething, storms, cooks and carries away."

- Duke Ellington

Discographic notes

Filmography

  • Jammin 'the Blues (1944)
  • Born to Swing (1973)
  • The Last of the Blue Devils (1979)

Lexical entries

Web links

Individual references, comments

  1. ↑ to Kunzler Jazzlexikon 2002 and Bohländer Reclams Jazzführer 1989
  2. ↑ a b Light as the wind: "Papa" Jo Jones
  3. ↑ Jones carried his tap dance shoes around with him like a talisman until the end of his life and put them on when he was on the drums: They were part of his equipment. When they accidentally disappeared in the trash in a club, he refused to perform. The club owner and a team of helpers searched the municipal garbage dump until he found the shoes.
  4. ↑ See Ross Russell Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest 1983, p. 227
  5. ↑ The term "All-American" commonly used in US has roughly the same meaning as "representative of all Americans" or "best American"
  6. ↑ a b c d Kunzler, Jazz-Lexikon, 1988, Volume 1, p. 586
  7. ↑ cit. n. Jazz Rough Guide
personal data
SURNAME Jones, Jo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jones, Jonathan (maiden name); Jones, Papa Jo (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American drummer
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH 3rd September 1985
Place of death New York City , New York