Monday, February 6, 2012

Jo Jones, A Marvelous Man of the Drums

SPARKLING, bursting and pulsatingly profound jazz drumming can grab us and allow us many percussive sound thrills. One man of the drums who changed modern music a tremendous amount was the artful individualist, Jo Jones.  This fellow was born in Chicago but moved to Alabama where in the latter part of the 1920s, he slid smoothly into the jazz music arena playing in the fine aggregation, the Walter Page Band.  A little bit later, in 1933, Jones got into the Count Basie unit.  That band was strong and feisty in the 1930s. His eloquent music career rocketed upward and a bit later it was realized Jones had a terrific impact on grand drummers like Louie Bellson, Max Roach, Kenny Clarke and Buddy Rich.

WHILE IN THE POWERFUL COUNT BASIE BAND,  Jo Jones revamped the total concept of what imaginative jazz drumming was all about.  Jones moved away from the stodgy four beats a bar routine and experimented rather vigorously coming up with a bright and shiny sleek touch on the cymbals.  Jones could make a percussionist's weaponry surge with new artistic breakthroughs...indeed his brashness and vivid style brought his music into a finesse-oriented new wild world much like the tremendous engaging impact of an Andy Warhol in the discipline of art.

The Shi-sa dogs of Japan are remarkably similar to the well-honed artful pulsating that is right there in the very beautifully engaging jazz drumming art of Mr. Jo Jones.  Creative, fiery ideas can surround us all so very beautifully. It is "cool" to find ourselves enveloped in all the bold, rivers that make up the modern artful total life experience.

CLEVERLY, the delicate and profound percussive thinking of Jo Jones can prove fascinating for the listening audience. In the late 1930s and 1940s the man, Jo Jones, created unusually imaginative jazz music working with the sophisticated Freddie Green on guitar and the very fine Walter Page on the bass. These guys engineered a provocative melange of sounds for the glory days of the Count Basie Band. Vibrant, aggressive jazz drumming like that of the skilled percussionist, Jo Jones, produces passionate aural fun for us cats who truly dig the meaningful music that is jazz.

WE NEED GREAT DRUMMING to wake us up to the vigorous thrills that make the wonders of life a  panorama of greatness we all can enjoy.

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Nice Writing

THE GOOD terse writing of Ernest Hemingway is a real joy.  He does not use too many adjectives.  His 'Torrents' is a fine tome.