Curt's Jazz Cafe

Carmell Jones (1936 – 1996)

“The New York scene was stifling me and I was becoming disenchanted with things in the States.” – Carmell Jones

He plays on one of the most famous straight-ahead jazz songs ever recorded, yet today people are more likely to confuse him with a film character played by Dorothy Dandridge, than they are to know the titles of any of his six albums. 

Carmell Jones was a native of Kansas City, KS, who possessed a powerful attack and a clear buoyant tone. This made finding work as a sideman and as a studio musician, after he moved to California in 1960, relatively easy. 

During the early ‘60’s Jones, played or recorded with Bud Shank, Gerald Wilson, Nelson Riddle and many others. He recorded his first album, The Remarkable Carmell Jones, for Pacific Records in 1961, with Harold Land joining him on the front line.  It was an auspicious debut, with Jones, Land and the band swinging hard through a few hard-bop tunes and a couple of standards. Gerald Wilson wrote arrangements for his next two albums: Business Meetin’ and Brass Bag, also for Pacific.

(Carmell Jones plays “Yvette”)

In the spring of ’64, Jones moved east to join Horace Silver’s group. During his brief tenure with the pianist, he played on several cuts on the celebrated Song for My Father album, including the title track.  He also recorded  his best known album, Jay Hawk Talk, for Prestige and played on some well-received discs with Land, Booker Ervin and Charles McPherson. Not surprisingly, Jones was voted Downbeat’s “New Star Trumpeter”.

(From Jay Hawk Talk, Carmell Jones – “Willow Weep for Me”)

Yet, at the height of this apparent success, Jones quit Silver’s band in the summer of ’65 and moved to Germany, where he remained for the next 15 years.

Though this move may have been best personally for the easygoing Jones, it probably hurt him professionally, as he was effectively removed from the U.S. jazz scene until he returned, in virtual anonymity, in 1980. 

He recorded a very good album Carmell Jones Returns, in 1982, but it went virtually unnoticed. He taught music in elementary school and worked on the local Kansas City jazz scene for the remainder of his life, before passing away in 1996, at the age of 60.

I discovered Jones’ music through picking up a used LP copy of Jay Hawk Talk in Greenwich Village record store a few years back. I’ve heard most of his limited discography since then. I find something new to like each time I hear him.  I think you will too.

Recommended Recordings:

• The Remarkable Carmell Jones (EMI Japan [Import]) – CD in print
• Jay Hawk Talk (Prestige) – CD in print; mp3 also available
• The Harold Land/Carmell Jones Quintets – Complete Studio Recordings (Lonehill Jazz Spain [Import]) – CD in print
• Mosaic Select – Carmell Jones  [3 CD set of all of his Pacific recordings] – OOP

This entry was posted on February 8, 2011 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Obscure Trumpet Masters with tags Carmell Jones; Gerald Wilson; Horace Silver. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.