Kevin Jones (musician)


Kevin Jones is an American jazz percussionist and band leader. Jones's music is influenced by that of Cuba and Congo.

Career

Jones grew up in Englewood, New Jersey. He is the brother of the musician Patrick Stanfield Jones. As a teenager he studied under percussionists Babatunde Lea, Marvin "Bugalu" Smith, Congolese drummers Titos Sompa and Coster Massamba, Charli Persip and Max Roach. He began playing percussion professionally at age 13 with a group called "Spoonbread" who were signed to All Platinum Records of Englewood, NJ. In 1978, aged 18, he played in a sextet led by Charles McPherson on the album Free Bop! He studied music at the University of Massachusetts and Jazzmobile simultaneously until 1979 when his Professor, saxophonist Archie Shepp, took him on tour to Europe, where he recorded his second album. Just months later he was hired by The Isley Brothers and toured and later recorded a host of records with them.
Jones has performed with, among others, Whitney Houston, The Isley Brothers, Jermaine Jackson, Archie Shepp, Winard Harper, Ray Copeland, Talib Kibwe, Babatunde Lea, James Weidman, Clifford Adams, and Malaki Ma Congo Drum and Dance Ensemble

Tenth World

Jones and the pianist Kelvin Sholar formed the band Tenth World in 1999. The band members included Jamieo Brown, Brian Horton, George Makinto, Kevin Louis, and Luisito Quintero.
Bill Milkowski writing in JazzTimes described Jones's first album as leader, Tenth World, produced by Babatunde Lea, as combining "the spirit of Africa with modern jazz on his impressive debut." Milkowski wrote of the group's second album, Live!, "Percussionist Bujo Kevin Jones underscores this vibrant sextet with an authentic Afro-Cuban pulse".

Who's That Lady?

In 2014, Jones released the album Who's That Lady? through Motéma Music under the moniker Koko Jones. The Koko Jones Band included singers Derrick Dupree and Christelle Durandy, Pianist Zen Zadravec, Drummer Jerard Snell, Guitarist Michael "Moon" Reuben and Bassist Charles Brown.
In a generally positive review, "j.poet" wrote in Drum! Magazine that "Jones has a lifetime of performing a wide range of styles with some of the top names in the field, and brings all those elements together on Who's That Lady".

Discography

As support musician