Joe Jones (1934 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

– 1993 in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

) was an American avant-garde musician associated with

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

especially known for his creation of rhythmic music machines.

Formation

Joe Jones grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and received a classical musical education at Hartnett Music School in

. In the late 1950s he began a short career as a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

drummer. In 1960 Jones began to study

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

experimental composition first briefly with John Cage and then

Earle Brown Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of "open form," a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since� ...

. Through these associations he formed an artistic alliance with

Dick Higgins Dick Higgins (15 March 1938 – 25 October 1998) was an American artist, composer, art theorist, poet, publisher, printmaker, and a co-founder of the Fluxus international artistic movement (and community). Inspired by John Cage, Higgins was an ...

Alison Knowles Alison Knowles (born 1933) is an American visual artist known for her installations, performances, soundworks, and publications. Knowles was a founding member of the Fluxus movement, an international network of artists who aspired to merge diff ...

and La Monte Young.

Fluxus

Jones first started experimenting with mechanical instruments in 1962, creating objects like musical boats, solar music umbrellas and a pedaled vehicle that pulled handmade instruments on wheels called "The Longest Pull Toy in the World".Obituaries, New York Times, 2/18/1993 "Joe Jones, an Artist With a Musical Bent and an Inventor, 58" The following year his works were exhibited at the

Betty Parsons Betty Parsons (born Betty Bierne Pierson, January 31, 1900 – July 23, 1982) was an American artist, art dealer, and collector known for her early promotion of Abstract Expressionism. She is regarded as one of the most influential and dynamic f ...

Gallery in New York City. Beginning in 1963 Jones participated in the

art movement, taking part in a number of Fluxus

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

activities with his

automaton An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

-like music machines - made from found ready-made instruments.
Interview with Joe Jones by Nakagawa Shin (1992) In 1963 he performed his machinic noise music at the Yam festival in

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

and a year later he performed again at the Avantgarde music festival in

. He created many machine drum exhibitions and art actions in New York City and Nice, France during this period.

Tone Deaf Music Store

In 1969 Jones opened his own ''Tone Deaf Music Store'' (aka ''Joe Jones Music Store'' and/or ''JJ Music Store'') at 18 N. Moore Street in New York City. There he presented his repetitive

drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...

music machines in the window so that anyone could press the numerous door buttons to play the machine noise music in the window. He also gave small musical installation performances by himself and musicians such as

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

and

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

, among others there. After Jones moved out of this store-loft space, it became the art studio of

archivist and artist

Joseph Nechvatal Joseph Nechvatal (born January 15, 1951) is an American post-conceptual digital artist and art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses. Life and work Joseph Ne ...

, then the once

Theatre of Eternal Music The Theatre of Eternal Music (later sometimes called The Dream Syndicate) was an avant-garde musical group formed by La Monte Young in New York City in 1962. The core of the group consisted of Young (voice, saxophone), Tony Conrad (violin), ...

member

Jon Hassell Jon Hassell (March 22, 1937 – June 26, 2021) was an American trumpet player and composer. He was best known for developing the concept of "Fourth World" music, which describes a "unified primitive/futurist sound" combining elements of various ...

and finally

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

artist

Bill Viola Bill Viola ( , ; born 1951) is an American contemporary video artist whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in new media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, d ...

, before being merged into Walkers Restaurant.

Work with Yoko Ono and John Lennon

From April 18 to June 12, 1970, Ono and Lennon (aka

Plastic Ono Band The Plastic Ono Band was a rock band formed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969 for their collaborative and solo projects based on their 1968 Fluxus conceptual art project of the same name. Lennon and Ono began a personal and artistic relati ...

) presented a series of Fluxus art events and concerts at the Tone Deaf Music Store called ''GRAPEFRUIT FLUXBANQUET''. It was promoted with a poster designed by Fluxus leader

George Maciunas George Maciunas (; lt, Jurgis Mačiūnas; November 8, 1931 – May 9, 1978) was a Lithuanian American artist, born in Kaunas. A founding member and the central coordinator of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers ...

. Performances included ''Come Impersonating John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Grapefruit Banquet'' (April 11–17) by George Maciunas,

Yoshimasa Wada Yoshimasa "Yoshi" Wada (11 November 1943 – 18 May 2021) was a Japanese sound art installation artist and new music musician who lived in New York City and then San Francisco, California. Life Born in Japan, after moving to New York City Wa ...

Nye Ffarrabas Nye Ffarrabas (formerly Bici Forbes and Bici Hendricks), is an American artist and poet known for her contributions to the first generation of Fluxus. She participated in Judson Gallery shows at Judson Memorial Church in 1966-1968. Nye Ffarrabas ...

(then known as Bici Hendricks), Geoffrey Hendricks, and

Robert Watts Robert Watts (born 23 May 1938)Adam Pirani, ''Robert Watts: Secrets of "The Temple of Doom"'', Starlog #94, April 1985, pp 23–26,62. is a British retired film producer who is best known for his involvement with the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana ...

; ''Do It Yourself'' (April 11–17) by Yoko Ono; ''Tickets by John Lennon + Fluxagents'' (April 18–24) with Wada,

Ben Vautier Ben Vautier, also known simply as Ben (born 18 July 1935 in Naples, Italy), is a French artist. Vautier lives and works in Nice, where he ran a record shop called ''Magazin'' between 1958 and 1973. Biography Benjamin Vautier was born on 18 Ju ...

and Maciunas; ''Clinic by Yoko Ono + Hi Red Center'' (April 25-May 1); ''Blue Room by Yoko + Fluxmasterliars'' (May 2–8); ''Weight & Water by Yoko + Fluxfiremen'' (May 9–15); ''Capsule by Yoko + Flux Space Center'' (May 16–22) with Maciunas,

Paul Sharits Paul Jeffrey Sharits (February 7, 1943, Denver, Colorado—July 8, 1993, Buffalo, New York) was a visual artist, best known for his work in experimental, or avant-garde filmmaking, particularly what became known as the structural film movement, ...

George Brecht George Brecht (August 27, 1926 – December 5, 2008), born George Ellis MacDiarmid, was an American conceptual artist and avant-garde composer, as well as a professional chemist who worked as a consultant for companies including Pfizer, Johnson ...

, Ay-O, Ono, Watts, John Cavanaugh; ''Portrait of

as a Young Cloud by Yoko + Everybody'' (May 23–29); ''The Store by Yoko + Fluxfactory'' (May 30-June 5), with Ono, Maciunas, Wada, Ay-O; and finally ''Examination by Yoko + Fluxschool'' (June 6–12) with Ono, Geoffrey Hendricks, Watts,

Mieko Shiomi was a Japanese amateur photographer in Shōwa era Japan. Life Shiomi was born in Osaka, and graduated from Shimizudani Girls' High School in 1927 (Shōwa 2). Shiomi joined the Tampei Photography Club in 1948, and thereafter joined two other ...

and

Robert Filliou Robert Filliou (17 January 1926 – 2 December 1987) was a French artist associated with Fluxus, who produced works as a filmmaker, "action poet," sculptor, and happenings maestro. Life In 1943, Filliou became a member of the French Communi ...

. In 1971 Jones participated in the making of the album ''Fly'' with Lennon and Ono. Jones made automated instruments for Ono's recordings "Don't Count The Waves", "You", and "Airmale" that appear on ''Fly'' and the ''

Onobox ''Onobox'' is a 1992 comprehensive 6-disc collection of Yoko Ono's work from 1968 to 1985. The discs are grouped by era and theme. Disc one centers around the albums '' Fly'' and ''Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band'', while Disc two features nearly the e ...

''. Photos of these automated instruments can be seen in the gatefold of ''Fly''. Jones also co-founded the ''Fluxus-Airline'' with

Move to Europe

Soon after, Jones left New York for Europe; living in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

Asolo Asolo () is a town and '' comune'' in the Veneto Region of northern Italy. It is known as "The Pearl of the province of Treviso", and also as "The City of a Hundred Horizons" for its mountain settings. History The town was originally a settlem ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

and finally

and continued to exhibit worldwide in galleries and museums. Since the mid-1980s Jones produced short

digital art Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process, or more specifically computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960s, various name ...

films on computer that he called ''Fluxus-Home-Movies''. His 1989 book ''My first book of computer drawings : Joe Jones music machines, 1962-1989'' was published by Rainer Verlag in Berlin Jones also devised larger

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

-like installations with his music machines called ''Solar Orchestras''
mp3s of music by Joe Jones at

UbuWeb UbuWeb is a web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives. Philo ...

that would perform automatically as the sun came up until the sun went down, powered by

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...

. In 1988 his works could be seen at the

Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

and in 1992-93 there was a touring exhibition of his work with stops in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

and

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and tow ...

References

Bibliography

* Owen Smith (1998)

: The History of an Attitude,

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

Press * Block, René, ed. 1962 Wiesbaden Fluxus 1982. Wiesbaden (BRD): Harlekin Art; Wiesbaden: Museum Wiesbaden and Nassauischer Kunstverein; Kassel: Neue Galerie der Staatliche, 1982. * Friedman, Ken, ed. The Fluxus Reader. Chicester, West Sussex and New York: Academy Editions, 1998. * Gray, John. Action Art. A Bibliography of Artists’ Performance from Futurism to Fluxus and Beyond. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1993. * Hendricks, Geoffrey, ed. Critical Mass,

Happenings A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

, Fluxus, performance,

intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe various interdisciplinarity art activities that occur between genres, beginning in the 1960s. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to work ...

and

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

1958–1972. Mason Gross Art Galleries, Rutgers, and Mead Art Gallery, Amherst, 2003. * Hendricks, Jon. Fluxus Codex. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1989. * Jon Hendricks, ed. Fluxus, etc.: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: Cranbrook Museum of Art, 1982. * Higgins, Hannah. Fluxus Experience. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. * Kellein, Thomas. Fluxus. London and New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995. * ''Fluxus y Di Maggio''. Museo Vostell Malpartida, 1998, . * Milman, Estera, ed. Fluxus: A Conceptual Country, 'Visible_Language'',_vol._26,_nos._1/2.html" ;"title="Visible_Language.html" ;"title="'Visible Language">'Visible Language'', vol. 26, nos. 1/2">Visible_Language.html" ;"title="'Visible Language">'Visible Language'', vol. 26, nos. 1/2Providence: Rhode Island School of Design, 1992. * Moren, Lisa. Intermedia. Baltimore, Maryland: University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2003. * Paull, Silke and Hervé Würz, eds. ''How we met or a microdemystification''. Saarbrücken-Dudweiler (Germany) 1977, Engl.-German, AQ 16, Incl. a bibliography by Hanns Sohm. * Phillpot, Clive, and Jon Hendricks, eds. Fluxus: Selections from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection. New York:

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, 1988. * Schmidt-Burkhardt, Astrit. Maciunas’ Learning Machine from

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

to a Chronology of Fluxus. Detroit, Michigan: Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection, 2005.

Discography

* Joe Jones, ''In Performance'', Harlekin Art Records, LP, 1977, Liner Notes by

* Joe Jones, ''Fluxus Is Dead'', Freibord, cassette, 1980, with cardboard box, produced in an edition of 100, numbered and stamp-signed * Joe Jones, ''Solar Music Tent'', Tone-Deaf Music (Joe Jones Self-released), cassette, 1982 * Joe Jones, ''Solar Music, April 20, 1983'', Hundertmark Editions, CD, Edition of 500 * Joe Jones, ''A Garden Party'', Edition Telemark, LP, 2016, Recorded in Erik Andersch's garden in

26 June 1983. Produced in an edition of 200 in gate-fold PVC sleeve including a book, poster and postcard. The book was originally released by Jones in 1987 in an edition of 15. The audio recording was previously unreleased. * Joe Jones, ''Back and Forth, Exhibition Sound, 31.8.1985'', Hundertmark Editions, CD, Edition of 500 * Joe Jones, ''Meditations'', Tone-Deaf Music (Joe Jones Self-released) cassette & LP, 1989 * Joe Jones, ''Xylophone'', Hundertmark Editions, CD, Edition of 500 * Joe Jones, ''Solar Music at Sierksdorf, Ostsee'', Hundertmark Editions, CD, Edition of 500 * Joe Jones, ''Solar Music #5'', Tone-Deaf Music (Joe Jones Self-released), CD, 2001 * Joe Jones, ''Solar Music Tent'', Edition Telemark, LP, 2018 * Joe Jones, ''Meditations 18.2'', Slowscan, LP, 2001

External links

Archivio Coz

Joe Jones "Flux Music Box"

Interview with Joe Jones by Nakagawa Shin (1992)

mp3s of music by Joe Jones at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Joe (Fluxus artist) 1934 births Fluxus Postmodern artists American experimental musicians American noise musicians Experimental composers Postmodern composers American male classical composers American classical composers American sound artists 1993 deaths 20th-century American composers Classical musicians from New York (state) 20th-century American male musicians People from Greenpoint, Brooklyn Musicians from Brooklyn