Jazz artist Cheryl Jones has found her voice at Utopia

by Marie Gullard

Every jazz singer has a story. Cheryl Jones, who appears every Sunday at the District's Utopia Bar & Grill, is no exception.

"I always said my vocation was ministry and my avocation was music," said the 51-year old. And so it was -- in the beginning.

Jones remembers music becoming an integral part of her life at 8, when she began her study of classical piano in her hometown of Houston. She went on to the University of Kansas where she earned a degree in music therapy. A mandatory six-month internship in Galveston, Texas, was barely completed when she decided to pursue a career in institutional ministry. Ordained in 1988, Cheryl Jones graduated with a master of divinity degree in pastoral care and counseling from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Her two loves, music and ministry, would merge in 1989 when she accepted a job in Washington as a chaplain at Howard University, a post she held until 1995. In the meantime, she performed at night with a local group, the Oasis Vocal Octet and, after leaving Howard, worked by day in a variety of settings as an institutional chaplain.

"Music started taking over in 2001," Jones recalled. "I learned solo vocal jazz at the Ellington music school [in D.C.] and fell in love with the workshops there. In 2005, I recorded my first CD, 'Like Someone in Love.'"

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/music/2011/07/jazz-artist-cheryl-jones-has-found-her-voice-utopia#ixzz1RkBWlpYd