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Floyd Jones

 
Artist: Floyd Jones

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Eddie Willis, Don White, Johnny Trudell, Don Slaughter, Ernie Rodgers, Paul Riser, Joe Messina, Patrick Lanier, Uriel Jones, Billy Horner, Eli Fontaine, Lefty Edwards, Maurice Davis, Bob Cousar, Hank Cosby, Russell Conway, Angelo Carlisi, Teddy Buckner, George Bohannon, Jack Ashford, Robert White, Herbie Williams, Larry Nozero
  • Born: July 21, 1917, Marianna, AR
  • Died: December 19, 1989, Chicago, IL
  • Active: '40s, '50s, '60s
  • Genres: Blues
  • Instrument: Vocals, Songwriter, Guitar
  • Representative Albums: "Masters of Modern Blues," "Masters of Modern Blues, Vol. 3," "The Chronological Floyd Jones: 1948-1953"
  • Representative Songs: "Dark Road," "Stockyard Blues," "Ain't Times Hard"

Biography

His sound characteristically dark and gloomy, guitarist Floyd Jones contributed a handful of genuine classics to the Chicago blues idiom during the late '40s and early '50s, notably the foreboding "Dark Road" and "Hard Times."

Born in Arkansas, Jones grew up in the blues-fertile Mississippi Delta (where he picked up the guitar in his teens). He came to Chicago in the mid-'40s, working for tips on Maxwell Street with his cousin Moody Jones and Baby Face Leroy Foster and playing local clubs on a regular basis. Floyd was right there when the postwar "Chicago blues" movement first took flight, recording with harpist Snooky Pryor for Marvel in 1947; pianist Sunnyland Slim for Tempo Tone the next year (where he cut "Hard Times"), JOB and Chess in 1952-53, and Vee-Jay in 1955 (where he weighed in with a typically downcast "Ain't Times Hard").

Jones remained active on the Chicago scene until shortly before his 1989 death, although electric bass had long since replaced the guitar as his main axe. He participated in Earwig Records' Old Friends sessions in 1979, sharing a studio with longtime cohorts Sunnyland Slim, Honeyboy Edwards, Big Walter Horton, and Kansas City Red. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide
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Floyd Jones
Born July 21, 1917(1917-07-21)
Marianna, Arkansas
Died December 19, 1989 (aged 72)
Chicago, Illinois
Genres Blues
Instruments singing, guitar, bass guitar
Years active 1930s - 1980s
Associated acts Snooky Pryor, Moody Jones

Floyd Jones (July 21, 1917 – December 19, 1989) was an American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter, who is significant as one of the first of the new generation of electric blues artists to record in Chicago after the Second World War. A number of Jones' recordings are regarded as classics of the Chicago blues idiom,[1] and his song "On The Road Again" was a top ten hit for Canned Heat in 1968.[2] Notably for a blues artist of his era, several of his songs have economic or social themes, such as "Stockyard Blues" (which refers to a strike at the Union Stockyards), "Hard Times" or "Schooldays".[3]

Life and career

Jones was born in Marianna, Arkansas. He started playing guitar seriously after being given a guitar by Howlin' Wolf, and worked as an itinerant musician in the Arkansas and Mississippi area in the 1930s and early 1940s, before settling in Chicago in 1945.[4]

In Chicago, Jones took up the electric guitar, and was one of a number of musicians playing on Maxwell Street and in non-union venues in the late 1940s who played an important role in the development of the post-war Chicago Blues sound. This group included Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers, both of who went on to become mainstays of the Muddy Waters band, and also Snooky Pryor, Floyd's cousin Moody Jones and mandolin player Johnny Young. His first recording session in 1947, with Snooky on harmonica and Moody on guitar, produced the sides "Stockyard Blues" and "Keep What You Got", which formed one of the two records released by the Marvel Label, and was one of the first examples of the new style on record. A second session in 1949 resulted in a release on the similarly short-lived Tempo-Tone label. During the 1950s Jones also had records released on JOB, Chess and Vee-Jay, and in 1966 he recorded for the Testament label's Masters of Modern Blues series.[5]

Jones continued performing in Chicago for the rest of his life, although he had few further recording opportunities. Later in his career the electric bass became his main instrument.[6] He died in Chicago in December 1989.

References

  1. ^ "allmusic ((( Floyd Jones > Overview )))". www.allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:difpxq95ld0e. Retrieved 2008-04-16. 
  2. ^ "wls093068". www.oldiesloon.com. http://www.oldiesloon.com/il/wls093068.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-28. 
  3. ^ Rowe, M. Chicago Blues: the city and the music, New York: Da Capo Press 1981, p. 97
  4. ^ "Planet and Marvel". hubcap.clemson.edu. http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/planetmarvel.html. Retrieved 2008-05-02. 
  5. ^ Leadbitter, M. and Slaven, N., Blues Records 1943 to 1970 Vol. 1, London: Record Information services 2nd Ed. 1987
  6. ^ "allmusic ((( Floyd Jones > Overview )))". www.allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:difpxq95ld0e. Retrieved 2008-04-16. 

 
 
Learn More
The Chronological Floyd Jones: 1948-1953 (2005 Album by Floyd Jones)
Chicago Blues Anthology [Chess] (1984 Album by Various Artists)
Elmore James, John Brim, Floyd Jones (1986 Album by Elmore James/John Brim/Floyd Jones)

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