Rusty Jones (musician)
Encyclopedia
Isham Russell Jones II aka "Rusty" Jones (born April 13, 1942 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
) is an American
jazz
drummer
who is Chicago
-based. Jones' father was a saxophonist and his mother a vocalist (appearing under the name of Gretchen Lee) with most of their gigs being in and around the Chicago area. His mother was working at the Bismark Hotel in 1936 when the two were wed. Other musicians in Jones' family were his grandfather, a trombonist/bandleader named Frank Jones, who worked in the Saginaw and Detroit area and Jones' mother's brother, Dean Herrick, an early artist on the Hammond organ
.
The most famous of these family musicians was Jones' great uncle, Isham Jones
who became a renowned American bandleader/songwriter beginning with the 1920s and ending in 1936 when he initially retired. He wrote popular songs of the era such as, "It Had To Be You (song)
", "I'll See You In My Dreams", "The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else", "Swingin' Down The Lane", "On The Alamo", "There Is No Greater Love
", "We're In The Army Now" and several others.
Jones began playing drums at the age of thirteen and continued on throughout his college years, choosing traditional and modern jazz as his preferred mode of music. He went "on the road" after graduating college in 1965 from the University of Iowa with a degree in history and political science, to "get it out of his system", but he never stopped his pursuit of a musical vocation. He moved to the Chicago area in 1967.
Jones appeared with Chicago musician Judy Roberts from 1968 to 1972, soon after becoming a member of George Shearing
's trio from 1972 to 1978. Later years he accompanied pianist Marian McPartland
for a few years and then freelanced throughout Chicago with several bands, touring the United States and Europe. He has worked quite a bit with Adam Makowicz
, Larry Novak
, Danny Long, Patricia Barber
, Johnny Gabor, Jim Beebe, Charlie Hooks, Frank D'Rone
, Art Hodes
, Mark Pompe, Frank Portolese, Ron Surace, Ira Sullivan
, J.R. Monterose, Stéphane Grappelli
and Curt Warren.
Jones has done short gigs with Buddy DeFranco
, Art Van Damme
, Kai Winding
, Curtis Fuller
, Lee Konitz
, Chuck Hedges, Bill Davison ("Wild Bill"), Anita O'Day
, Mark Murphy
, Flip Phillips
, Sylvia Symms, Morgan King
, Red Holloway
, Eddie Higgins
, Isaac Cole ("Ike"), Clifford Jordan
, Bill Porter, Polly Podewell, Jim Clark, Franz Jackson
, Bobby Enriquez
, Monty Alexander
, and Catherine Whitney
among many others. He has made several recordings (about 43 sessions between 1958 and 2004) with many of these previously mentioned musicians. Currently, Jones appears quite regularly around the Chicago area with the Johnny Gabor Trio featuring vocalist Connie Marshall.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
who is Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based. Jones' father was a saxophonist and his mother a vocalist (appearing under the name of Gretchen Lee) with most of their gigs being in and around the Chicago area. His mother was working at the Bismark Hotel in 1936 when the two were wed. Other musicians in Jones' family were his grandfather, a trombonist/bandleader named Frank Jones, who worked in the Saginaw and Detroit area and Jones' mother's brother, Dean Herrick, an early artist on the Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
.
The most famous of these family musicians was Jones' great uncle, Isham Jones
Isham Jones
Isham Jones was a United States bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.-Career:Jones was born in Coalton, Ohio, to a musical and mining family, and grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, where he started his first band...
who became a renowned American bandleader/songwriter beginning with the 1920s and ending in 1936 when he initially retired. He wrote popular songs of the era such as, "It Had To Be You (song)
It Had to Be You (song)
"It Had to Be You" is a popular song written by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn, and was first published in 1924.The song was performed by Priscilla Lane in the 1939 film The Roaring Twenties and by Danny Thomas in the 1951 film I'll See You in My Dreams. The latter film was based loosely upon...
", "I'll See You In My Dreams", "The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else", "Swingin' Down The Lane", "On The Alamo", "There Is No Greater Love
There Is No Greater Love
"There Is No Greater Love" is a 1936 jazz standard composed by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Marty Symes. It was the last hit song for Jones's orchestra before the bandleader turned the orchestra over to Woody Herman, beginning the latter's 50 year career as a bandleader.The song is often played as a...
", "We're In The Army Now" and several others.
Jones began playing drums at the age of thirteen and continued on throughout his college years, choosing traditional and modern jazz as his preferred mode of music. He went "on the road" after graduating college in 1965 from the University of Iowa with a degree in history and political science, to "get it out of his system", but he never stopped his pursuit of a musical vocation. He moved to the Chicago area in 1967.
Jones appeared with Chicago musician Judy Roberts from 1968 to 1972, soon after becoming a member of George Shearing
George Shearing
Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...
's trio from 1972 to 1978. Later years he accompanied pianist Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland
Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, NPR.-Early life:...
for a few years and then freelanced throughout Chicago with several bands, touring the United States and Europe. He has worked quite a bit with Adam Makowicz
Adam Makowicz
Adam Makowicz born Adam Matyszkowicz is a Polish-Canadian pianist and composer living in Toronto. He performs jazz and classical piano pieces, as well as his own compositions...
, Larry Novak
Larry Novak
Lawrence R. "Larry" Novak is an American jazz pianist. He is the father of Gary Novak.Larry Novak was born in Chicago. He learned piano from age five and began playing jazz at 14. He studied at Loyola University Chicago and the University of Minnesota, followed by a stint playing in a military...
, Danny Long, Patricia Barber
Patricia Barber
-Discography:* Split Premonition Records * Distortion of Love Antilles * Cafe Blue Blue Note, Premonition Records * Modern Cool Blue Note, Premonition Records...
, Johnny Gabor, Jim Beebe, Charlie Hooks, Frank D'Rone
Frank D'Rone
Frank D'Rone is an American jazz singer and guitarist. He grew up in Providence, Rhode Island and began singing and playing the guitar professionally at age 5. At age 11, he had his own local radio show. At age 13, he won an Artist’s Degree in classical guitar from the American Guild of Stringed...
, Art Hodes
Art Hodes
Arthur W. Hodes , known professionally as Art Hodes, was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:...
, Mark Pompe, Frank Portolese, Ron Surace, Ira Sullivan
Ira Sullivan
Ira Sullivan is a bop jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, flautist, saxophonist and composer born in Washington, D.C.. An active musician since the 1950s, he may be best known for his extensive work with Red Rodney and Lin Halliday among others....
, J.R. Monterose, Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
and Curt Warren.
Jones has done short gigs with Buddy DeFranco
Buddy DeFranco
Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco is an American jazz clarinet player.-Biography:DeFranco began his professional career just as swing music and big bands — many of which were led by clarinetists like Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and Woody Herman — were fading in popularity...
, Art Van Damme
Art Van Damme
Art Van Damme was a jazz accordionist.-Biography:Born in Norway, Michigan, he began playing the accordion at age nine and started classical study when his family moved to Chicago in 1934. In 1941 he joined Ben Bernie's band as an accordionist. He adapted Benny Goodman's music to the accordion...
, Kai Winding
Kai Winding
Kai Chresten Winding was a popular Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson.-Biography:...
, Curtis Fuller
Curtis Fuller
Curtis DuBois Fuller is an American jazz trombonist, known as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributor to many classic jazz recordings.-Biography:...
, Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...
, Chuck Hedges, Bill Davison ("Wild Bill"), Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day
Anita O'Day was an American jazz singer.Born Anita Belle Colton, O'Day was admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer"...
, Mark Murphy
Mark Murphy (singer)
Mark Murphy is an American jazz singer based in New York. He is most noted for his definitive and unique vocalese and vocal improvisations with both melody and lyrics...
, Flip Phillips
Flip Phillips
Flip Phillips was an American jazz tenor saxophone and clarinet player. He is best remembered for his work with Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1946 to 1957.-Biography:...
, Sylvia Symms, Morgan King
Morgan King
- Musical career:Born in Spitalfields, London, Morgan's musical career began in 1979 as drummer for Manchester band Illustration, who were subsequently signed by the indie label, "Some Bizarre". After several years immersed in the UK indie scene, Morgan's musical direction changed considerably with...
, Red Holloway
Red Holloway
James W. "Red" Holloway is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Holloway started playing banjo and harmonica, switching to tenor sax when he was twelve years old...
, Eddie Higgins
Eddie Higgins
Edward Haydn Higgins was a jazz pianist, composer and orchestrator. -Biography:Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Higgins initially studied privately with his mother. He started his professional career in Chicago, Illinois, while studying at the Northwestern University School of Music...
, Isaac Cole ("Ike"), Clifford Jordan
Clifford Jordan
Clifford Laconia Jordan was a jazz saxophone player. While in Chicago, he performed with Max Roach, Sonny Stitt, and some rhythm and blues groups. He moved to New York City in 1957, after which he recorded three albums for Blue Note. He also recorded with Horace Silver, J.J. Johnson, Kenny...
, Bill Porter, Polly Podewell, Jim Clark, Franz Jackson
Franz Jackson
Franz Jackson was a saxophonist and clarinetist of the Chicago jazz school.Notable as one of the last surviving jazz artists to have recorded pre-1940, Jackson was still active well into his 90s in various jazz clubs of Chicago...
, Bobby Enriquez
Bobby Enriquez
Roberto Delprado Yulo Enriquez , better known as Bobby Enriquez, was a Filipino jazz pianist who became prominent in the United States and well-known internationally.New York Times critic John S. Wilson wrote:Mr...
, Monty Alexander
Monty Alexander
Monty Alexander is a jazz pianist and melodica player. His playing has a strong Caribbean influence and swinging feeling, but he has also been influenced by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, and Ahmad Jamal.-Biography:Alexander discovered the piano at the age of 4, taking classical music...
, and Catherine Whitney
Catherine Whitney
Catherine Jane Whitney is an American Jazz Singer that is Chicago-based and is not only a vocalist, but composer and lyricist as well. She sings in the "vo-cool" style similar to that of Anita O'Day and Peggy Lee. She is published by Second Floor Music in New York...
among many others. He has made several recordings (about 43 sessions between 1958 and 2004) with many of these previously mentioned musicians. Currently, Jones appears quite regularly around the Chicago area with the Johnny Gabor Trio featuring vocalist Connie Marshall.
Discography
- On-line: http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/artist/Rusty+Jones/a/Rusty+Jones.htm
- On-line: http://www.lordisco.com/musicians/J8.html
Official website
http://www.chicagojazz.com/musician.php?artist=rustyjones&muid=159 The performer's website @ ChicagoJazz.comExternal links
- http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=14769
- http://www.cimprecords.com/artists/?artist=Rusty+Jones
- http://www.centerstagechicago.com/music/whoswho/RustyJones.html
- http://www.moderndrummer.com/