RICHARD M. JONES ( II )

    En la fotografía RICHARD M. JONES con BILLY STRAYHORN 

    Como en más de una ocasión le búsqueda de documentación acerca del pianista, multiinstrumentista Richard M. Jones resulta dificultosa y contradictoria, os dejamos con algunas de sus piezas grabadas y los datos de dos biografías aparentemente distintas , peró que coinciden en bastantes datos. 

            

             

Richard M. Jones, born Richard Marigny Jones (sometimes written Richard Mariney Jones), (13 June 1892 – 8 December 1945) was a jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and record producer. Numerous songs bear his name as author, including "Trouble in Mind".

Jones grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jones suffered from a stiff leg and walked with a limp; fellow musicians gave him the nickname "Richard My Knee Jones" as a pun on his middle name. In his youth he played alto horn in brass bands. His main instrument, however, became the piano. By 1908 he was playing in Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans. A few years later, he often led a small band which sometimes included Joe Oliver. Jones also worked in the bands of John Robichaux, Armand J. Piron, and Papa Celestin.

In 1918 Jones moved to Chicago. He worked as Chicago manager for publisher and pianist Clarence Williams. Jones began recording in 1923, making gramophone records as a piano soloist, accompanist to vocalists, and with his bands The Jazz Wizards and The Chicago Cosmopolitans. He recorded for Gennett, OKeh, Victor, and Paramount Records in the 1920s. He also worked for OKeh Records as Chicago supervisor of the company's "Race" (African-American) Records for most of the decade. During this period he was the producer of the very influential Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings led by cornetist (later trumpeter) Louis Armstrong, the most important soloist in early jazz. In the 1930s Jones played a similar management role for Decca.

Richard M. Jones worked for Mercury Records until his death.

              

Richard Myknee Jones was from a musical family in New Orleans and played a variety of instruments before making the piano his main instrument. He played in Armand Piron's Olympia Orchestra and led his own band called The Four Hot Hounds which included Sugar Johnny Smith and occasionally King Oliver. During World War One he played with Papa Celestin. He left New Orleans in 1919 and moved to Chicago where he set up the Chicago branch of Clarence Williams publishing company and music store. He played in bands in Chicago during the 1920s, but his main gig was as manager of Okeh records race records division. He led his own studio band called Richard M. Jones' Jazz Wizards and accompanied a great number of singers and bands on piano. He continued to be active in music until his death both as a musician and talent scout. Jones is best remembered today as the composer of such Jazz standards as "Trouble In Mind" and "Riverside Blues".