Search - Jonah Jones :: Jumpin With Jonah

Trumpeter-vocalist Jonah Jones, who died in early 2000 at 91, made his mark as an exponent of an entertaining style of jazz that owed more to Louis Armstrong and the swing era than to bebop. A former sideman with Cab Calloway, Jimmie Lunceford, Billie Holiday, and Lionel Hampton, Jones recorded this 1958 studio recording with pianist Hank Jones, bassist John Brown, and drummer Harold Austin. His crowd-pleasing, no-nonsense, mainstream musicality has at its heart Jones's crisp, light-vibrato trumpet, which shines especially brightly on the boogie-woogied "No Moon at All" and the Big Easy standard, "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" His easygoing tenor vocals are an urbane echo of Armstrong's down-home drawl on "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home," "It's a Good Day," and "A Kiss to Build a Dream On." With additional tracks from Jonah Jumps Again and Hit Me Again! this set will create new fans of this overlooked legend. --Eugene Holley Jr.