Jonathan David Samuel Jones was an American jazz drummer.
17 Facts About Jo Jones
2.
Jo Jones was sometimes known as Papa Jo Jones to distinguish him from younger drummer Philly Joe Jones.
3.
Jo Jones worked as a drummer and tap-dancer at carnival shows until joining Walter Page's band, the Blue Devils in Oklahoma City in the late 1920s.
4.
Jo Jones recorded with trumpeter Lloyd Hunter's Serenaders in 1931, and later joined pianist Count Basie's band in 1934.
5.
Jo Jones took a brief break for two years when he was in the military, but he remained with Basie until 1948.
6.
Jo Jones participated in the Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series.
7.
Jo Jones was one of the first drummers to promote the use of brushes on drums, and shifting the role of timekeeping from the bass drum to the hi-hat cymbal.
8.
Jo Jones had a major influence on later drummers such as Buddy Rich, Kenny Clarke, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, and Louie Bellson.
9.
Jo Jones starred in several films, most notably the musical short Jammin' the Blues.
10.
Jo Jones performed regularly in later years at the West End jazz club at 116th and Broadway in New York City.
11.
In contrast to the prevailing jazz drum style exemplified by Gene Krupa's loud, insistent pounding of the bass drum on each beat, Jo Jones often omitted bass drum playing altogether.
12.
Jo Jones continued a ride rhythm on hi-hat, while it was continuously opening and closing instead of the common practice of only striking it while it was closed.
13.
Jo Jones's style influenced the modern jazz drummer's tendency to play timekeeping rhythms on a cymbal, that is known as the ride cymbal.
14.
In 1979, Jo Jones was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame for his contribution to the Birmingham, Alabama musical heritage.
15.
Jo Jones was the 1985 recipient of an American Jazz Masters fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
16.
Jo Jones's autobiography, entitled Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones and based on conversations between Jones and novelist Murray from 1977 to before Jones' death in 1985, was posthumously published in 2011 by the University of Minnesota Press.
17.
Jo Jones died of pneumonia in New York City at the age of 73.