David Jones (c. 1888 – 1956) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

tenor saxophonist The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while t ...

mellophonist The mellophone is a brass instrument typically pitched in the key of F, though models in E, D, C, and G (as a bugle) have also historically existed. It has a conical bore, like that of the euphonium and flugelhorn. The mellophone is used as th ...

, teacher and arranger.

Biography

Jones played with the Holmes Brass Band in his hometown of Lutcher in 1910, then played in

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in the middle of the decade. He worked on the ''S.S. Capitol'' with

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from 1918 to 1921. Davey joined Marable's band at the same time as Louis Armstrong and taught the 17-year-old how to read

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, A ...

. Jones played with

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in California in 1921, and then worked in

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with

R.Q. Dickerson Roger Quincey Dickerson (1898 – January 21, 1951) was an American jazz trumpeter. Biography He was born in 1898 in Paducah, Kentucky. Dickerson was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked in local theaters in the late 1910s. He to ...

's Record Breakers in 1922. Following this he and Dickerson found work in

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's Bostonians, remaining in this ensemble after Andrew Peer took over and led the group for a residency at the

Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown Theater District (1936–1940).Elizabeth Winter"Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- )" Blac ...

in New York City. This group recorded as the ''Cotton Club Orchestra'' in 1925 and later was known as

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. Jones then returned to New Orleans to lead his own band at the Pelican Dance Hall. He played briefly with

William Ridgley William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conqu ...

's Tuxedo Orchestra, then co-led the Jones & Collins Astoria Hot Eight with Lee Collins. Davey also gave lessons to young trumpeter Joe Newman, who later played with

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and th ...

. He lived in California later in life, and died in 1956.

References

*Howard Rye, "David Jones". '' Grove Jazz'' online. *Laurence Bergreen, ''Louis Armstrong, An Extravagant Life'', Broadway Books, NY (c) 1997 at p. 149. *Thomas Brothers, ''Louis Armstrong's New Orleans'', W. W. Norton & Co., NY (c) 2006 at p. 252. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, David American jazz saxophonists American male saxophonists People from Lutcher, Louisiana 1956 deaths 1880s births 20th-century American saxophonists Jazz musicians from Louisiana 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Jones & Collins Astoria Hot Eight members