Max Jones (journalist)

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Ronald Maxwell "Max" Jones (born February 28, 1917 in London , † August 1, 1993 in Chichester ) was a British jazz author, radio presenter and journalist .

Live and act

Jones and his brother Cliff learned to play the saxophone by themselves before they founded a semi-professional dance orchestra called the Campus Club Dance Band around 1930 . After the band broke up in 1935, Jones tried to establish himself as a full-time musician and became a member of a formation led by trumpeter Johnny Claes and stylistically based on Coleman Hawkins . In 1942 and 1943 he worked in the radio program of the BBC ( Radio Rhythm Club ); In 1942 he founded the magazine Jazz Music with the authors Albert McCarthy and Charles Fox , the merit of which it was "to reassert the groundbreaking role of Afro-American culture, to underline the social dimension of music and to attack the high gloss of the commercialization of big band swing . “Since 1944 he wrote for the Melody Maker in the category Collectors' Corner Features, from January 1945 in full-time position. In the following years he built a reputation for himself as a recognized expert on New Orleans jazz , swing and mainstream jazz .

A collection of his publications on musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges , Billie Holiday and Mary Lou Williams appeared in book form in 1987 under the title Talking Jazz . In 1971 he presented a biography of Louis Armstrong with John Chilton . He also wrote a number of liner notes , for example for CD editions of the Kenny Clarke / Francy Boland Big Band and the Spirits of Rhythm .

Jones is the first jazz musician to become a professional journalist writing exclusively about jazz. He was a role model and mentor to a younger generation of rock music authors and critics.

Jones was married to Betty Salberg and had one son.

Book publications

  • Max Jones / John Chilton: Louis: The Louis Armstrong Story, 1900–1971 Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 1971
German: Max Jones / John Chilton: The Louis Armstrog Story 1900–1971 . Herder, Freiburg, 1972. ISBN 3-451-16584-8
  • Jazz Talking: Profiles, Interviews, and Other Tiffs on Jazz Musicians . London, MacMillan, 1987, New York City: Da Capo Press, 2000
  • Lee Collins , Mary Spriggs Collins, Frank Gillis, John W. Miner Oh, Didn't He Ramble: The Life Story of Lee Collins (preface by Max Jones)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Obituary in The Independent , August 4, 1993
  2. ↑ Information from Jazzservices ( Memento of the original from July 11, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / jazzservices.org.uk
  3. ^ Floyd Levin, Benny Carter: Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians
  4. ↑ Isthar.it
  5. ↑ See Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X , p. 606.
  6. ^ John Shepherd: Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. Vol. 1: Media, Industry and Society , p. 305

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Jones, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jones, Ronald Maxwell
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1993
Place of death Chichester