* En anglais uniquement
Jo Jones shifted the timekeeping role of the drums from the bass drum to the hi-hat cymbal, greatly influencing all swing and bop drummers.
Buddy Rich and
Louie Bellson were just two musicians who learned from his light but forceful playing, as
Jones swung
the Count Basie Orchestra with just the right accents and sounds. After growing up in Alabama,
Jones worked as a drummer and tap dancer with carnival shows. He joined
Walter Page's Blue Devils in Oklahoma City in the late '20s. After a period with Lloyd Hunter's band in Nebraska,
Jones moved to Kansas City in 1933, joining
Count Basie's band the following year. He went with
Basie to New York in 1936 and with
Basie,
Freddie Green, and
Walter Page, he formed one of the great rhythm sections.
Jones was with the
Basie band (other than 1944-1946 when he was in the military) until 1948, and in later years, he participated in many reunions with
Basie alumni. He was on some
Jazz at the Philharmonic tours and recorded in the '50s with
Illinois Jacquet,
Billie Holiday,
Teddy Wilson,
Lester Young,
Art Tatum, and
Duke Ellington, among others;
Jones appeared at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival with both
Basie and the
Coleman Hawkins-
Roy Eldridge Sextet. He led sessions for Vanguard (1955 and 1959) and Everest (1959-1960), a date for Jazz Odyssey on which he reminisced and played drum solos (1970), and mid-'70s sessions for Pablo and Denon. In later years he was known as
"Papa" Jo Jones, and thought of as a wise if brutally frank elder statesman. ~ Scott Yanow