Richard M. Jones, born Richard Marigny Jones (sometimes written Richard Mariney Jones), (June 13, 1892 – December 8, 1945) was an American

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 ...

pianist, composer, band leader, and record producer. Numerous songs bear his name as author, including " Trouble in Mind". He was born in

Donaldsonville, Louisiana Donaldsonville (historically french: Lafourche-des-Chitimachas) is a city in, and the parish seat of Ascension Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located along the River Road of the west bank of the Mississippi River, it is a part of the ...

, United States. Jones grew up in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. 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 The tenor horn (British English; alto horn in American English, Althorn in Germany; occasionally referred to as E horn) is a brass instrument in the saxhorn family and is usually pitched in E. It has a bore that is mostly conical, like the flu ...

in brass bands. His main instrument, however, became the piano. By 1908, he was playing in Storyville, the red-light district of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,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 Oscar Phillip Celestin (January 1, 1884 – December 15, 1954) better known by stage name Papa Celestin was an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader. Life and career Celestin was born in Napoleonville, Louisiana, to a Creole family, son of a s ...

. In 1918, Jones moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. He worked as Chicago manager for publisher and pianist Clarence Williams. Jones began recording in 1923, making

gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts ne ...

s as a piano soloist, accompanist to vocalists, and with his bands The Jazz Wizards and The Chicago Cosmopolitans. He recorded for Gennett,

OKeh Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

, 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 influential Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings led by cornetist (later trumpeter) Louis Armstrong. In the 1930s, Jones performed a similar management role for

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

. Richard M. Jones worked for

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

until his death in December 1945 in Chicago, at the age of 53.

References

Other sources

* * Roy Middleton, Hennie van Veelo, and Christopher Hillman. ''Richard M. Jones: Forgotten Man of Jazz''. London: Cygnet Productions, 1997.

External links

Richard M. Jones recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Richard M. 1892 births 1945 deaths Jazz musicians from New Orleans African-American pianists American jazz bandleaders American male jazz composers American jazz composers American jazz pianists American male pianists Gennett Records artists Paramount Records artists Record producers from Louisiana 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American composers 20th-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century jazz composers 20th-century African-American musicians