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b. 29 November 1914, Gulfport, Mississippi, USA, d. 24 June 1989, New York City, New York, USA. Jones arrived in New York in 1932, her only singing experience at the Mt. Holy Baptists Church in Gulfport. Her first professional engagement was at the Elk’s Rendezvous Club, which proved so successful that she was retained for nine months. Other nightclubs she sang in included the Club Harlem, the Village Vanguard and Murrains Cafe. Her first recordings for National in 1944/5 featured jazz musicians Dizzy Gillespie, Don Byas, Edmond Hall, Sammy Price and Cliff Jackson. She toured the south and Midwest with Blanche Calloway and Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson, and worked alongside Gillespie and Tiny Bradshaw with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. After the war, she recorded three sessions for Decca Records, backed by Price’s group. In the early 50s she fell over on stage, suffering an injury that forced her to use a crutch at club dates. Because of this, she retired from music shortly afterwards and eventually succumbed to leukaemia.
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