Jones the Song

London’s first dedicated Jazz radio station was the original Jazz FM.  It started broadcasting in 1990.  In addition to its Jazz output to which I rapidly became addicted, each Saturday morning at 10 am, Paul Jones broadcast two hours of Blues.  Jones has to be the most learned Blues maven in the UK – if not beyond.  The breadth and depth of his knowledge is extraordinary.  In addition to playing ever more arcane records, Jones’ playlists feature artists with whom surely no more than a few hundred dedicated Blues aficionados in the UK are familiar.  Jones conducts interviews with visiting American Bluesmen with intelligence, wit, insight and due reverence that is neither patronising nor obsequious.  However obscure the artist, Jones will share an easy familiarity with his – and occasionally her – life and times and, of course, music and musical influences.

Paul Jones started his career as singer and harmonica player with Manfred Mann.  In common with many of the bands that emerged in the vanguard of the British R’n’B boom of the early sixties, the price of Manfred Mann’s commercial success was partly paid by pandering to the needs of the pop charts.  Notwithstanding the requisite cultural compromises that included regular appearances on Top of the Pops, the Manfreds’ early hits were heavily R’n’B influenced.  ‘5-4-3-2-1’ became the opening music for iconic TV show ‘Ready, Steady Go’.  By the time that ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’ – a cover of a track originally recorded by The Exciters - became the Manfreds’ first number one hit in the summer of 1964, Jones’ public persona was more teen pin up than earthy bluesman.  It was only a couple of years before he departed to pursue a mainstream singing and acting career; at least temporarily.  

In between these events, the Manfreds toured in a package co-headlining with fellow R’n’B pioneers, The Yardbirds.  Towards the end of 1965 the tour reached Portsmouth.  Promoted as a triumphal homecoming for the Manfreds – along with Jones, drummer Mike Hugg was a local boy, the Guildhall was packed.   In amongst the music fans were massed ranks of teenage girls whose primary objective was to scream themselves into a state of near-clinically diagnosable hysteria.  As irritated as I am these days by having to shush the non Jazz-loving poseurs who insist on talking over the music at  Ronnie Scotts, there was nothing anyone could have done to quell the waves of mayhem that more or less drowned out the Manfreds. 

However, there came a point in the set when Jones managed to persuade every one of the damp-knickered, teary-macscara stained pubescent girls to shut up.  The highlight of the evening was a memorable performance of Bob Dylan’s ‘With God on our side’.  This was the time of the folk-protest movement of which the Manfreds were not an obvious part.  The choice of this song and the powerful manner of its delivery imparted the relevance of that movement’s message that might have previously passed by some of the audience.  Not the first gig I had attended, but the first ‘concert’ and memorable for that and more, too; the audience’s response was genuinely passionate.

While indulging thespian pursuits – including a spell with the National Theatre - together with guitarist/vocalist Dave Kelly and fellow Manfreds’ alumnus, Tom McGuiness, Jones formed The Blues Band.  The use of the definite article is wholly justified.   Over the past thirty years or so I have seen The Blues Band play a number of live gigs and they have never been less than splendid.  In addition to some originals, they perform classic blues numbers aplenty.  There are also numerous lesser known covers no doubt, at least in part, unearthed from the vaults of Jones’ extensive memory bank and record collection.  The Blues Band’s choice of material is always thoughtful and blends intelligent messages told in true blues language with catchy riffs, outstanding musicianship and the authentic vocal excellence of both Jones and Kelly.

Stage favourites include the reluctant kiss off message of ‘Find Yourself Another Fool’, the eternal requirement of ‘Green stuff’ and ‘Funny Money’ as well as the fact that the Band have discovered  ’29 Ways’ to make it to their baby’s door!

I have met Paul Jones on a couple of occasions.  The first was when he and his wife were sitting at the next table to my wife and me at The Jazz Café and we chatted as you do with anyone else next to whom you might be sitting at a club.    Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington was touring at around the time of the release of his 1991 ‘Sada’ album.   The album’s highlight and showstopper is the title track, a plaintiff tribute to Washington’s then infant daughter whose picture is on the album cover.  Jones’ radio programme had introduced me to Washington’s music as it had to much else besides.  More recently, I saw Jones was playing with a pick up band at a corporate do in Grays’ Inn .  I don’t think anyone else realised who he was.  The band had been introduced anonymously to a crowd of City suits more interested in getting hammered on free champagne and gorging on up-market nibbles.  In between sets we spoke of our respective experiences of then recent visits to our shared alma mater.  Portsmouth Grammar School had recently started indulging in an orgy of reaching out to its lost alumni.   Although still looking remarkably youthful, Jones is actually 10 years my senior.  His reaction of positive disbelief to the new paradigm of inclusion, youth and modernity at the school was similar to mine.

Along with Georgie Fame, Eric Clapton and Stevie Winwood, Paul Jones is one of the few musicians I have seen performing live in every decade since the 1960’s.  With his boyish enthusiasm for his work, Jones is a living example of the power of music to transcend generations and assume an energy that is all its own.  Who’s to say there isn’t another couple of decades of great music still to come from him?

‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’ by Manfred Mann is an original 45 vinyl single.  It also appears along with ‘5 4 3 2 1’ and  ‘With God On Our Side’ on the ‘Manfred Mann EP Collection’ released on vinyl in 1988 by See For Miles – a super collectors’ label. The Blues Band’s albums in my collection include the Arista vinyl releases ‘Ready’ (198O), ‘Brand Loyalty’ (1982) and ‘Bye Bye Blues’ (1983).  There is also a CD released in 1992 by Castle Communications entitled ‘Homage’ on which I did the legal work for Castle.  Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington’s ‘Sada’ is a CD released in 1991 on the Pointblank label. 

Paul Jones now broadcasts a weekly does of ‘Rhythm and Blues’ on Radio 2 on Monday at 7 pm.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wrpd

Upcoming gigs for the Blues Band: http://www.thebluesband.net/HTML/TourDates.html