Jo Jones

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. <a href="spotify:artist:1pVtwG5Up1OZOEpSHJ4AAs">Buddy Rich</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1el0ImlpL5kq6eAHoodvOU">Louie Bellson</a> were just two musicians who learned from his light but forceful playing, as Jones swung <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">the Count Basie Orchestra</a> 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 <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">Count Basie</a>'s band the following year. He went with <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">Basie</a> to New York in 1936 and with <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">Basie</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0MDZeGp2fFapBa7q260Qvs">Freddie Green</a>, and Walter Page, he formed one of the great rhythm sections. Jones was with the <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">Basie</a> band (other than 1944-1946 when he was in the military) until 1948, and in later years, he participated in many reunions with <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">Basie</a> alumni. He was on some <a href="spotify:artist:1MrfEFvDJwmXQJADGBSEPV">Jazz at the Philharmonic</a> tours and recorded in the '50s with <a href="spotify:artist:6HzzZqLS76PGbKaw6dIMHZ">Illinois Jacquet</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1YzCsTRb22dQkh9lghPIrp">Billie Holiday</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0tg5uVI4VjzZOFzBryJZii">Teddy Wilson</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:05E3NBxNMdnrPtxF9oraJm">Lester Young</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3DtSOCXYU6o4EV0K1NgIKq">Art Tatum</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:4F7Q5NV6h5TSwCainz8S5A">Duke Ellington</a>, among others; Jones appeared at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival with both <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">Basie</a> and the <a href="spotify:artist:0JM134st8VY7Ld9T2wQiH0">Coleman Hawkins</a>-<a href="spotify:artist:4RvXA7BDgqNgGDjsSSJnPc">Roy Eldridge Sextet</a>. 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, Rovi