Joseph Rudolph Jones (1925-1985)
The Beginning
He was born with the name Joseph Rudolph Jones in the city of Philadelphia on July 15,
1923. His mother, a piano teacher taught him the basics in music. In his formative years he
also studied the drums with drummers the likes of Cozy Cole and Charles Wilcoxon, receiving
valuable advise from Art Blakey and a then younger Max Roach. He established himself as
"Philly Joe" Jones, from the name of the city of his birth, to distinguish himself from the
mainstay Count Basie’s drummer, Jo Jones. But just as Jo Jones established the rhythm
section standard in the 30’s and 40’s, Philly Joe would do the same in the 50’s.
early career
He began playing with the rhythm and blues bands in the 40’s, establishing himself on the
New York jazz scene. The first group that he recorded with was co-led by Johnny Griffin
and Joe Morris, along with Matthew Gee on trombone and Elmo Hope on piano and Percy Heath.
For a time they played standard Monk and pieces of Bud Powell, but reverted back to
playing the blues for the sake of money. Philly, unhappy with the music, split with the
group and joined the already established Ben Webster, Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims, Tony Scott,
and Tadd Dameron. He worked in Philadelphia as the local drummer for stars such as Dexter
Gordon and Fats Navarro. He was in the army for a short time and len left in 1945 taking a
job up as a streetcar driver. He was supposedly fired from the job because he would stop
the steetcar with people in it and go in to play a set at the jazz clubs on the way,
sometimes forgetting about the people in the car.
Influences: Dameron and Davis
The two major influences that have shaped Philly Joe’s career was his work with Tadd Dameron
in the late 40’s to 1953 and then with Miles Davis from 1952-58. Working with Dameron
taught him to play as a ‘big band’ drummer as well as behind a soloist. The most important
association was that with trumpeter Miles Davis. The two would travel around the US stopping
in cities to do a gig with the local talent. "Philly Joe Jones and I would go from city to
city playing with local musicians. Philly would go ahead of me and get some guys together
and then I would show and we’d play a gig. But most of the time this shit was getting on my
nerves because the musicians didn’t know the arrangements and sometimes didn’t even know
the tunes"(Miles’ Autobiography 179). It became "a drag" as Philly said because usually the
local talent was not close to satisfactory. This went on from 52-55. Then after a booking
at a club in Baltimore, 1955, after being found by Philly Joe, Miles hired pianist Red
Garland from Texas and bassist virtuoso Paul Chambers, then of 20 years of age. An
invitation was extended to John Coltrane, who was tested by a the Miles arrangement of Two
Bass Hit. After the gig Miles said to Jones, "I think this is it." Jones agreed having said
of the group, "The first time we played together…we just looked around at each other and
said, ‘hum here it is right here. We’ve got musical telepathy here. We have five people who
always know what’s going to happen next.’" And those five people became legendary as the
classic Miles Davis Quintet was baptized for its first time.
Career Bang
Chambers and Jones would be the dynamic rhythm section popular among soloists such as
Sonny Rollins and Art Pepper. Jones was on many Blue Note recordings and was virtually
house drummer for the Blue Note, Riverside, and Prestige record labels. His style has
been described as "too loud" or "like a machine gunner." However one must listen carefully
to appreciate his precision and energy. One excellent example of Jones’ playing can be
heard of Coltrane’s album, Blue Train. Jones’ first album was in 1958, an LP for the
Riverside record label. On his album were players that would become well known in the
business: Nat Adderley, Julian Priester, Johnny Griffin and Tommy Flanagan. In his prime,
Jones won great recognition. In Downbeat magazine polls he won the new star category on
drums in 1957 and the main drum category in 1962. He was second place in 1961, second to
Max Roach.
