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Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians have described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable.According to Arnold Jay Smith (in "The Impeccable Hank Jones", Down Beat, July 31, 1976), Jones was branded "the impeccable one" by WRVR-FM jazz historian Ed Beach. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award. National Endowment for the Arts: Henry "Hank" Jones He was also honored in 2003 with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Living Legend Award. In 2008, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. On April 13, 2009, the University of Hartford presented Jones with an honorary Doctorate of Music for his musical accomplishments.
Jones recorded more than 60 albums under his own name and is estimated to have "appeared on over a thousand recordings" as a sideman, including Cannonball Adderley's celebrated album Somethin' Else with Miles Davis. On May 19, 1962, he played piano as actress Marilyn Monroe sang her famous "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" song to then U.S. president John F. Kennedy. "Hank Jones: The Man Who Accompanied Marilyn", The Marilyn Monroe Collection Blog, February 4, 2009.
Even though his father believed that "playing jazz was the work for the devil," in time, Jones also came under the influence of the premier jazz pianists of his early years: Earl Hines, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, and Teddy Wilson.Greene, Marcel. Liner notes for The Talented Touch by Hank Jones, Essential Jazz Classics EJC55475, 2010, p. 1. Jones said that Tatum was his "all-time favorite player,"Greene, p. 1. and according to a famous anecdote, when he first heard Tatum's ultra-virtuosic recording of "Tiger Rag" (1933), Jones "asked who the three pianists were."
By the age of 13, Jones was performing locally in Michigan and Ohio. While playing with territory bands in Grand Rapids and Lansing in 1944, he met saxophonist Lucky Thompson, who invited Jones to work in New York City at the Onyx Club with Hot Lips Page.Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Guinness, 1995, p. 2206.
In autumn of 1947, Jones began touring in Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic package, and from 1948 to 1953 he worked as an accompanist for Ella Fitzgerald.Feather, Leonard. Inside Jazz, Da Capo Press, 1988, p. 89. As he matured as a soloist and an accompanist, he developed "a harmonic facility of extraordinary taste and sophistication." During this period, he also made several historically important recordings with Charlie Parker, which include "The Song Is You", from the Now's the Time album, recorded in December 1952, with Teddy Kotick on bass and Max Roach on drums.
Engagements with Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman followed as well as recordings with artists such as Lester Young, Cannonball Adderley, and Wes Montgomery. Jones participated in Shaw's final recordings before his retirement, an acclaimed series of small-group sessions. He went on to become the "house pianist" on Savoy Records, recording a highly regarded trio album for the label in 1955 with bassist Wendell Marshall and drummer Kenny Clarke. Other Savoy projects from this period include recordings with Donald Byrd and Bobby Jaspar. Pianist Ethan Iverson says Jones' Savoy-era dates "showcase some of the most lush pre-Bill Evans comping in jazz and a post-Billy Strayhorn nexus of impressionism and the blues."
In 1961, Jones played on the "beautiful near-minimalist" score that Kenyon Hopkins composed for the Paul Newman film The Hustler, which features the alto sax of Phil Woods and includes a solo number for Jones titled "Derby Time".Unsigned liner notes, The Hustler: Original Film Soundtrack, Cherry Red Records, 2012. Jones also played the piano accompaniment for Marilyn Monroe as she sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy on May 19, 1962. Jones said of the occasion: "She did 16 bars. Eight bars of 'Happy Birthday' and eight bars of 'Thanks for the Memory'. We rehearsed those 16 bars for eight hours. So I think that's something like a half-hour for a bar of music. She was very nervous and upset. She wasn't used to that kind of thing. And I guess who wouldn't be nervous singing 'Happy Birthday' to the president? She actually was a very good singer; however, on this particular occasion I think she was somewhat hampered by having imbibed rather freely. And it was very interesting."
Because of his commitments to CBS, Jones recorded relatively little as a leader during the sixteen years he worked there. During the 1960s, though, he did continue to make jazz recordings as a sideman and accompanist, appearing on albums by notable artists such as guitarist Johnny Smith, tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, and vocalists Johnny Hartman and Nancy Wilson. By the late 1970s, his involvement as a pianist and a conductor with the Broadway theatre musical Ain't Misbehavin' (based on the music of Fats Waller) had, as AllAboutJazz puts it, "informed a wider audience of his unique qualities as a musician."
By 1980, Jones' sidemen in the group were Eddie Gómez and Al Foster, and in 1982 Jimmy Cobb replaced Foster. The trio recorded on its own and with other all-star personnel, such as Art Farmer, Benny Golson, and Nancy Wilson. Jones would continue to record with various iterations of the Great Jazz Trio, including one with Richard Davis and the pianist's brother Elvin, up to the end of his life. Concurrently, he also made many trio recordings under his own leadership, including Bop Redux and I Remember You, both of which received Grammy nominations.
Other later recordings include various trio albums (notably For My Father from 2005 with bassist George Mraz and drummer Dennis Mackrel), a number of solo piano recordings, and sideman recordings on three albums by saxophonist Joe Lovano. Jones made his debut on Lineage Records, recording with Frank Wess and with the guitarist Eddie Diehl, and also appeared on West of 5th (2006) with Jimmy Cobb and Christian McBride on Chesky Records. In addition, he accompanied vocalists Roberta Gambarini on the acclaimed album You Are There (EmArcy, 2007) and Diana Krall for "Dream a Little Dream of Me" on the album compilation (Verve, 2007). Jones is one of the musicians who test and talk about the piano in the documentary , released in November 2007.
Even late in life, Jones continued to practice assiduously: "You have to stay in shape, so I do scales and exercises three or four hours a day, and then I practise sight-reading," he said at age 78. Near the end of his career, Jones collaborated with some of the most noted pianists of the upcoming generation, making a two-piano recording of the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn classic "Tonk" with Bill Charlap in 2007 Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life, Blue Note Records, 2007. and performing a two-piano concert with Brad Mehldau in Montreal in 2008.
Jones lived in Cresskill, New Jersey, upstate New York, and Manhattan. He died at age 91 at a Calvary Hospital Hospice in The Bronx, New York, on May 16, 2010, survived by his wife Theodosia.Keepnews, Peter (May 17, 2010), "Hank Jones, Versatile Jazz Pianist, Is Dead at 91", The New York Times.
Younger pianists have also expressed their indebtedness to and admiration for Jones, including Kenny Barron, Bill Charlap, Eric Reed, and Geoffrey Keezer, who recorded an album of Jones' compositions for Telarc in piano duos with Barron, Chick Corea, Benny Green, and Mulgrew Miller.
In addition to the honors mentioned above, in 2005, Jones was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music at the 20th anniversary of jazz education at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy.
| + Hank Jones Grammy Awards History | |||||
| 1977 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance – Soloist | "Bop Redux" | Jazz | Muse | Nominee |
| 1980 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance – Soloist | "I Remember You" | Jazz | Black & Blue | Nominee |
| 1980 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance – Group | "I Remember You" | Jazz | Black & Blue | Nominee |
| 1995 | Best Jazz Instrumental Solo | "Go Down Moses" | Jazz | Verve | Nominee |
| 1995 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance – Individual or Group | "Steal Away" | Jazz | Verve | Nominee |
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