Jimmy Jones Trio: 1954

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Jimmy Jones was an in-demand arranger and pianist throughout the 1950s and '60s, working with most leading jazz vocalists and soloists of the era. If you go into Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, you'll find Jones on 307 sessions. But if you modify your search, screening just for Jones's leadership dates, you'll find the number dramatically reduced to eight. In truth, there were only seven, since the tracks for an Atlantic Records session in 1957 were strangely never released. [Photo, above, of Jimmy Jones at the piano, accompanying trumpeter Joe Thomas at New York's Pied Piper Club c. 1947, by William P. Gottlieb]

Among these seven leadership recordings, the only trio session released as a six-song 10-inch LP was Jimmy Jones Trio. Jones recorded the album for the French Vogue label in October 1954 in Paris. The only explanations for Jones recording just one trio album over the course of his career is either that he was too busy or he was under contract as an arranger or accompanist to other artists and couldn't record legally under his own name. It's hard to imagine that every producer in the jazz universe overlooked the bright idea to record Jones in a trio setting.

The Jimmy Jones in Paris featured Joe Benjamin on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. The six songs they recorded were Lush Life, Easy to Love, Squeeze Me, My Funny Valentine, Good Morning Heartache and Little Girl Blue. Interestingly, the same trio already recorded behind Sarah Vaughan in 1949 and the previous month at Carnegie Hall. They would record with her again two months later on her first EmArcy 10-inch recording date with Clifford Brown (tp), Herbie Mann (fl) and Paul Quinichette (ts).

What I love about Jones here is the drama and intensity of his elegance. His chord voicings are thick, and songs were often executed with block chords. What he lacked in the way of extensive right-hand, single-line improvisation he made up for with a dense, percussive grace. I'm just glad we have at least one complete trio date, giving us insight into Jones' playing style without a vocalist or horn player getting in the way. Jimmy Jones died in 1982.

JazzWax tracks: The Jimmy Jones Trio has been reissued by Sony Japan here. His other leadership tracks are available on The Chronological Classics: Jimmy Jones 1946-1947 (pictured above), while four trio tracks are on a Gene Norman Presents compilation album from the mid-1950s called Escape. Both also sadly out of print and hard to find.

JazzWax clips: Fortunately, YouTube has three of the Paris clips up. Here's Just Squeeze Me...

Here's Good Morning Heartache...

Here's Little Girl Blue...

Used with permission by Marc Myers