| Tony Jones bio:
Tony Jones grew up in a hotbed of jazz education in Berkeley California where he was steeped in music at home and trained in some of the earliest jazz education programs in the nation, including Berkeley High School and UC Berkeley’s Young Musicians Program. While still in high school, Jones was part of an innovative cooperative quartet that performed bold experimental music around the Bay Area and on an East Coast tour where they were exposed to the still thriving loft jazz scene.
Jones Co-founded the Jessica Jones Quartet and, with violinist Charlie Burnham, the Pitch, Rhythm and Consciousness Ensemble and subsequent configurations; both groups record and perform extensively. He has performed and recorded with Don Cherry, Muhal Richard Abrams, Cecil Taylor, Peter Apfelbaum, and Joseph Jarman, among others, including in national and international jazz festivals. Jones was also part of New Artists Records, a collective company founded by Connie Crothers and Max Roach.
Jones is a recipient of the inaugural Jerome Artist Fellowship and a Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Rare Earth Vibration Association (REVA Inc), a New York based performing arts non-profit organization.
Jessica Jones bio:
Saxophonist/pianist/composer Jones leads a pianoless group, the Jessica Jones Quartet, which features her original music. The group has played festivals and major clubs on the East and West Coasts of the U.S, and received a Jazz Road grant from South Arts. Saxophonist husband Tony Jones, bassist Stomu Takeishi and drummer Kenny Wollesen round out the group, which has played in the Knitting Factory Festival in New York City, the Bay Area Jazz Poetry Festival, and the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival in Oakland, California, where the group headlined with special guest Don Cherry. The group has been featured in venues including Yoshi’s and Dizzy’s Club and released several CDs to critical acclaim collaborating with guests such as pianist Connie Crothers, saxophonist Joseph Jarman of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. Poets, storytellers, and guest musicians have been augmented the core quartet throughout.
In addition, Ms. Jones is active as a sideman and has worked with Joseph Jarman, Cecil Taylor, Karl Berger, and Don Cherry as well as a variety of Haitian, Caribbean, and African bands. She is composing an opera with poet Arisa White debuting in 2025 in Maine, and has a varied body of additional compositional work.
Jones is an innovative jazz educator and consultant, working with children and young adults on improvisation, composition, and oral traditions for Jazz at Lincoln Center, Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Vision Festival, Brooklyn Friends School, Bard College and others. Currently, Jones is Executive and Co-Artistic Director for REVA, Inc, a non-profit created to use creative arts to inspire, educate and heal people and communities. REVA’s initiatives include Global JazzWomen festivals and related events, educational and apprentice programs, and partnerships with community music organizations in Botswana, South Africa, NYC and the SF Bay Area. |
