| Booker T. Jones |
|
| Background information |
| Born |
November 12, 1944 (1944-11-12) (age 64)
Memphis, Tennessee, US |
| Genres |
R&B, instrumental rock, soul, electric blues |
| Occupations |
Musician, songwriter, producer |
| Instruments |
Piano organ, oboe, saxophone, vocals, trombone |
| Years active |
1961— |
| Labels |
Stax |
| Associated acts |
Booker T. & the MG's, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Stephen Stills, Otis Redding, Drive By Truckers, The Mar-Keys |
| Website |
http://www.bookert.com/ |
| Notable instruments |
| Hammond Organ |
Booker T. Jones (born November 12, 1944) is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known for fronting the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with some of the highest regarded artists of our time, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.
Early life and career
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Jones was a child prodigy, playing the oboe, saxophone, trombone, and piano at school and serving as organist at his church. He attended Booker T. Washington High School, the alma mater of Rufus Thomas and shared the hallowed halls with future stars like Isaac Hayes's writing partner David Porter; saxophonist Andrew Love of The Memphis Horns; soul singer/songwriter William Bell and Earth, Wind, and Fire's Maurice White.
Jones's first entry into professional music came at age sixteen, when he played baritone saxophone on Satellite (soon to be Stax) Records' first hit, "Cause I Love You", by Rufus Thomas and Carla Thomas.
While hanging around the Satellite Record Shop run by Estelle Axton, co-owner of Satellite Records with her brother Jim Stewart, Jones met record clerk Steve Cropper, who would become one of the MGs when the group formed in 1962. Besides Jones on organ and Cropper on guitar, Booker T. and the MGs featured Lewie Steinberg on bass guitar and Al Jackson, Jr. on drums (Donald "Duck" Dunn eventually replacing Steinberg). While still in high school, Jones wrote the group's instrumental "Green Onions", which not only became a hit in 1962, but remains an enduring classic more than 40 years later.
Bob Altshuler wrote the sleeve notes on the first Booker T. & The M.G.'s album released by Stax Records in 1962 and also called Green Onions. He wrote thus:
- Booker T. Jones’ (his full name) musical talents became apparent at a very early age. By the time he entered high school, Booker was already a semi-professional, and quickly recognized as the most talented musician in his school. He was appointed director of the school band for four years, and in addition, organized the school dance orchestra which played for proms throughout the Mid-South. In the classroom, he concentrated on the studies of music theory and harmony.’ Altshuler continued Booker's multiple activities earned him a coveted honour, that of being listed in the students’ “Who’s Who of American High Schools”. Booker's first instrument was the string bass, but he soon switched to the organ. Booker came to the attention of record executive Jim Stewart in Memphis, and while still in high school, he worked as a staff musician for Stax Records, appearing as sideman on many recording dates for that label. It became obvious that one day Booker would be ready to record under his own name and several months later Booker’s first recording session was set.
Over the next few years, Jones would divide his time between studying classical music composition, composing and transposition at Indiana University, playing with the MGs on the weekends back in Memphis[1], serving as a session musician with other Stax acts, and writing songs that would become classics. He wrote, with Eddie Floyd, "I've Never Found a Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)", Otis Redding's "I Love You More Than Words Can Say", and, with William Bell, Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign." The latter would later be popularized in the cover version by power trio Cream.
In 1970, Jones moved to California and stopped playing sessions for Stax, after becoming frustrated with Stax's treatment of the MGs as employees rather than musicians. While still under contract to Stax, he appeared on Stephen Stills' eponymous album (1970). The 1971 album, Melting Pot would be the last Booker T. & the MGs album issued on Stax.
Jones produced three albums with his former wife, under the name Booker T. & Priscilla, as well as making the charts as a solo artist in 1981 with "I Want You". He produced Priscilla's sister Rita Coolidge, Bill Withers's debut album Just As I Am (on which he also played several instruments), and Willie Nelson's album Stardust. He has also lent his trademark keyboards to artists ranging in genre from Ray Charles to Neil Young to Natalie Merchant. Jones still plays with Booker T. & the MGs and his own Booker T. Jones Band.
Jones was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and was honored with a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement on February 11, 2007.[2]
In 2009 he released a new solo album, Potato Hole, recorded with the Drive By Truckers,[3] and featuring Neil Young. He performed at the Bonnaroo Festival with Drive By Truckers on 2009-06-13, with a set including most tracks from Potato Hole as well as some Truckers tracks.
Ronnie James and guitarist Troy Gonyea from The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Marc Ford from The Black Crowes toured, to considerable acclaim, with him in England in 2009, with the addition of Darian Gray on drums, as part of the promotion of Potato Hole.
He features on the new Rancid album, Let The Dominoes Fall, playing a Hammond B-3 on the track "Up To No Good".
Family
Booker's daughter Olivia stars on the E Channel's Candy Girls. She is a hip hop video/magazine model signed with the agency Bella.
Notes
- ^ Ware, Vron and Les Back. Out of Whiteness: Color, Politics, and Culture, The University of Chicago Press, 2001, p. 245. Excerpt at books.google.com.
- ^ "The Doors celebrate Grammy honour", BBC News, 11 February 2007.
- ^ Mansfield, Brian. "Booker T. emerges from his 'Hole'", USA Today, 15 January 2009.
References
- Ware, Vron (2001). Out of Whiteness: Color, Politics, and Culture. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-87342-0.
- Bowman, Rob (1997). Soulsville USA: The Story of Stax Records. Music Sales Group. ISBN 0-825-67284-8.
External links
