Authority control databases: Artists
Authority control databases: Artists  |
|---|
Kevin Jones | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Bujo Kevin Jones |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | musician |
| Instrument(s) | percussion |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Labels | Motéma Music |
| Website | www |
Kevin Jones is an American jazz percussionist and band leader. Jones's music is influenced by that of Cuba and Congo.[1]
Jones grew up in Englewood, New Jersey.[2] He is the brother of the musician Patrick Stanfield Jones.[3] As a teenager he studied under percussionists Babatunde Lea, Marvin "Bugalu" Smith, Congolese drummers Titos Sompa and Coster Massamba, Charli Persip and Max Roach. Jones began playing percussion professionally at the age of 13 with a group called Spoonbread, who were signed to All Platinum Records of Englewood, NJ. In 1978, aged 18, he played in a sextet led by Charles McPherson on the album Free Bop![2][4] He studied music at the University of Massachusetts and Jazzmobile simultaneously until 1979, when his Professor, saxophonist Archie Shepp, took him on tour to Europe, where he recorded his second album. Just months later he was hired by The Isley Brothers and toured and later recorded a host of records with them.
Jones has performed with, among others, Whitney Houston, The Isley Brothers, Jermaine Jackson, Archie Shepp, Winard Harper, Ray Copeland, Talib Kibwe, Babatunde Lea, James Weidman, Clifford Adams, and Malaki Ma Congo Drum and Dance Ensemble.[5]
Jones and the pianist Kelvin Sholar formed the band Tenth World in 1999.[6] The band members included Jamieo Brown (drums, percussion), Brian Horton (saxophone and flute), George Makinto (flute, percussion, African percussion), Kevin Louis (trumpet), and Luisito Quintero (timbales, percussion, drums).
Bill Milkowski writing in JazzTimes described Jones's first album as leader, Tenth World, produced by Babatunde Lea, as combining "the spirit of Africa with modern jazz on his impressive debut."[7] Milkowski wrote of the group's second album, Live!, "Percussionist Bujo Kevin Jones underscores this vibrant sextet with an authentic Afro-Cuban pulse".[8]
In 2014, Jones released the album Who's That Lady? through Motéma Music. The band included singers Derrick Dupree and Christelle Durandy, pianist Zen Zadravec, drummer Jerard Snell, guitarist Michael "Moon" Reuben and Bassist Charles Brown.
In a generally positive review, "j.poet" wrote in Drum! Magazine that "Jones has a lifetime of performing a wide range of styles with some of the top names in the field, and brings all those elements together on Who's That Lady".[9]