Max Jones (musician)
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Ronald Maxwell Jones (28 February 1917, London – 2 August 1993,
Chichester Chichester () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publi ...
) was a British
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 ...
author, radio host and journalist.


Life and achievements

Together with his brother Cliff, Jones taught himself to play the
saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
, before the two of them founded a
dance band ''Dance Band'' is a 1935 British musical film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers, June Clyde and Steven Geray. It was shot at Welwyn Studios with sets designed by the art director David Rawnsley. Plot When dance band ...
in 1930. Named "Campus Club Dance Band" it was semi-professional and when it was dissolved in 1935, Jones tried to establish himself as a professional musician, becoming a member of a combo led by
trumpeter The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B ...
Johnny Claes Octave John Claes (11 August 1916 – 3 February 1956) was an English-born racing driver who competed for Belgium. Before his fame as a racing driver, Claes was also a jazz trumpeter and successful bandleader in Britain. Early life and jazz ...
, with musicians who played in the style of
Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...
. In 1942 and 1943, Jones worked for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
radio programme ''Radio Rhythm Club''; and in 1942, together with authors
Albert McCarthy Albert J. McCarthy (1920 – 3 November 1987 London) was an English jazz and blues discographer, critic, historian, and editor. McCarthy began listening to jazz in his teens, and edited publications of the Jazz Sociological Society in the 1940s. ...
and Charles Fox, he founded the magazine ''Jazz Music'',
Steve Voce Steve Voce (born 23 December 1933) is a British journalist and music critic. As well as writing obituaries for ''The Independent'', Voce has been a columnist for ''Jazz Journal'' for about 60 years, and presented the ''Jazz Panorama'' radio progr ...

"Obituary: Max Jones"
''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'', 4 August 1993. which became meritorious as it set out "to reassert the pioneering role of the
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
, to emphasise the music’s social dimensions, and to attack the glossy commercialism of big-band swing". Starting in 1944, Jones had a full-time job writing features for the British weekly music magazine '' Melody Maker'' in the column "Collectors’ Corner". In the years following he gained recognition as a proven expert on New Orleans Jazz, swing, and
mainstream jazz Mainstream jazz is a term coined in the 1950s by music journalist Stanley Dance, who considered anything within the popular jazz of the Swing Era "mainstream",McRae, Barry. 2005. "Sound Investment: Mainstream." ''Jazz Journal International'', ...
. A collection of his articles on musicians such as Coleman Hawkins,
Johnny Hodges Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges (July 25, 1907 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophonist, best known for solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years. Hodges was also featured on soprano ...
,
Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...
, and
Mary Lou Williams Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, an ...
was published as a book entitled ''Talking Jazz'' in 1987. In 1971 Jones published a Louis Armstrong biography, ''Louis: The Louis Armstrong Story'', together with
John Chilton John James Chilton (16 July 1932 – 25 February 2016) was a British jazz trumpeter and writer. During the 1960s, he also worked with pop bands, including The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Escorts. He won a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes in 1 ...
. Jones also wrote a number of
liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desc ...
, such as for the CD edition of the
Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band The Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band was a jazz big band co-led by American drummer Kenny Clarke and Belgian pianist François "Francy" Boland. They were one of the most noteworthy jazz big bands formed outside the United States, featuring top ...
and the
Spirits of Rhythm Spirits of Rhythm were an American jazz string band. The ensemble's members had previously played under several other names (The Sepia Nephews, Ben Bernie's Nephews, The Five Cousins), and upon adding Teddy Bunn as guitarist in 1932, the group ...
. Jones was the first jazz musician to become a professional journalist. Although he dealt exclusively with jazz in his publications, he was a model and a mentor for a younger generation of
rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...
critics and authors.John Shepherd: ''Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. Vol. 1: Media, Industry and Society'', p. 305. Jones was married to Betty Salberg and had one son.


Publications

* ''LOUIS: The Louis Armstrong Story, 1900–1971'' (with John Chilton), Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 1971. * ''LOUIS: The Louis Armstrong Story 1900–1971'' (with John Chilton; new preface by Dan Morgenstern), New York City: Da Capo Press, 1988. *''TALKING JAZZ", London: MacMillan, 1987. * ''JAZZ TALKING: Profiles, Interviews & Other Riffs'' (new preface by Stanley Dance), New York City: Da Capo Press, 2000. * Lee Collins, Mary Spriggs Collins, Frank Gillis, John W. Miner, ''Oh, Didn't He Ramble: The Life Story of Lee Collins'' (preface by Max Jones).


References


External links

* http://www.maxjonesarchive.uk
short bio
in
Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

obituary in The Independent


In 1988, Max Jones conducted a live radio interview with the jazz legend Adelaide Hall. Transcripts from the taped recording, which is housed in the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
, are available to listen to upon request. Three selections from the recording can be heard in the article (published December 17, 2020) on the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
blog. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Max 1917 births 1993 deaths Jazz writers English radio presenters English jazz saxophonists British male saxophonists Musicians from London English biographers English music journalists Dance band bandleaders 20th-century biographers 20th-century English musicians 20th-century saxophonists 20th-century British male musicians British male jazz musicians