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Etta Jones

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Not to be confused with the founding member of the Dandridge Sisters nor with Etta James.
Etta Jones
Jones and Houston Person, 1980
Jones and Houston Person, 1980
Background information
Born(1928-11-25)November 25, 1928
Aiken, South Carolina, U.S.
DiedOctober 16, 2001(2001-10-16) (aged 72)
Mount Vernon, New York, U.S.
Genres
Occupations
  • Singer
  • songwriter
InstrumentVocals
Years active1943–2001
LabelsPrestige, Muse, HighNote

Etta Jones (November 25, 1928 – October 16, 2001) was an American jazz singer.[1] Her best-known recordings are "Don't Go to Strangers" and "Save Your Love for Me". She worked with Buddy Johnson, Oliver Nelson, Earl Hines, Barney Bigard, Gene Ammons, Kenny Burrell, Milt Jackson, Cedar Walton, and Houston Person.[2]

Biography

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Jones in Bryant Park, New York City, 1984

Early Life

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Jones was born in Aiken, South Carolina,[1] where her parents named her after another Etta Jones, a member of the Dandridge Sisters.[3] She was raised in Harlem, New York, where she began performing as a teenager. After she impressed Buddy Johnson at an amateur night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, he invited her to join his band as a vocalist while his sister, Ella Johnson, was on maternity leave.[3] Still in her teens, she joined the band for a tour although she was not featured on record. Her first recordings—"Salty Papa Blues", "Evil Gal Blues", "Blow Top Blues", and "Long, Long Journey"—were produced by Leonard Feather in 1944, placing her in the company of clarinetist Barney Bigard and tenor saxophonist Georgie Auld.[1]

Recording Career

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In 1947, she recorded and released an early cover version of Leon René's "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman" (previously released by the Basin Street Boys on Rene's Exclusive label) while at RCA Victor Records.[4] She performed with the Earl Hines sextet from 1949 to 1952.[5]

During the 1950s, Jones sought to obtain a recording contract, while working as a seamstress, elevator operator, and album stuffer. In 1956, she released the album The Jones Girl...Etta...Sings, Sings, Sings. She obtained a contract in 1960 with Prestige Records after impressing Prestige's preparatory director, Esmond Edwards, with her singing's warmth and phrasing via an unsolicited demo tape. Her first single, "Don't Go to Strangers," hit number five on the Rhythm and Blues chart, and 36 in pop charts, at a time when pop charts were dominated by white men. Over the next three years, she recorded ten albums for Prestige. Her favorite songwriter to cover was Sammy Cahn, and she also favored Harold Arlen, George and Ira Gershwin, and Cole Porter.[3]

Partnership with Houston Person

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Following these recordings, on which Jones was featured with high-profile arrangers such as Oliver Nelson and jazz stars such as Frank Wess, Roy Haynes, and Gene Ammons, she had a musical partnership of more than 30 years with tenor saxophonist Houston Person, who received equal billing with her.[6] He also produced her albums and served as her manager after the pair met in one of Johnny "Hammond" Smith's bands.

Although Etta Jones is likely to be remembered above all for her recordings on Prestige, her close professional relationship with Person (frequently, but mistakenly, identified as Jones's husband) helped ensure that the last two decades of her life would be marked by uncommon productivity. Starting in 1976, they began recording for Muse, which later changed its name to HighNote. Person became her manager, as well as her record producer and accompanist, in a partnership that lasted until her death in 2001.[7] They performed up to 200 times a year until she had to stop due to her health. Jones had dealt with cancer for more than a decade until the time of her death and had a mastectomy and chemotherapy.[3]

Legacy and death

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Only one of her recordings—her debut album for Prestige Records (Don't Go to Strangers, 1960)—enjoyed commercial success with sales of more than 1 million copies. However, her remaining seven albums for Prestige, and beginning in 1976, her recordings for Muse Records, and for HighNote Records secured her a devoted following.[1] She had three Grammy nominations: for the Don't Go to Strangers album in 1960, the Save Your Love for Me album in 1981, and My Buddy[7] (dedicated to her first employer, Buddy Johnson) in 1998. In 2008, the album Don't Go to Strangers was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[8] In 1996, she recorded the jazz vocalist tribute album, The Melody Lingers On, for the HighNote label.[9] Her last recording, a tribute to Billie Holiday, was released on the day of Jones's death.[10]

She died in Mount Vernon, New York, at the age of 72, from cancer.[2][7] Jones was survived by her husband, John Medlock, and a granddaughter, Lia Greatheart-Mitchell. Pearson arranged her funeral at one of their frequent performance venues, a church in Mount Vernon, New York. Jazz musicians including Melba Liston played tribute to Jones at the funeral.[3]

Jones earned the Eubie Blake Jazz Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women in Jazz Foundation.[11]

Discography

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Guest appearances

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With Houston Person

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Biography by Scott Yanow". Allmusic.com. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed September 2011
  3. ^ a b c d e Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. (2003). "Etta Jones". Notable Black American Women. Vol. 3. Gale. ISBN 9780787664947.
  4. ^ Jones, Etta, "1944-1947" Classics (France) CD
  5. ^ Dahl, Linda, Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen, Limelight Editions, 1989, p. 291.
  6. ^ Murph, John. "NPR's Jazz Profiles: Etta Jones". www.npr.org. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  7. ^ a b c Ratliff, Ben (2001-10-19). "Etta Jones, Jazz Standards Vocalist, Dies at 72". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  8. ^ 2008 Grammy Hall of Fame List Archived June 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ a b "Etta Jones". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
  10. ^ Bernstein, Adam (2001-10-18). "Singer Etta Jones Dies at 72". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
  11. ^ "Etta Jones, 72; Had Long Career in Jazz". Los Angeles Times. 2001-10-19. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
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