Jonah Jones
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Jonah Jones is also the name of a Welsh author who died in 2004
Jonah Jones (born Robert Elliott Jones on December 31, 1909 in Louisville, Kentucky; died April 29, 2000 in New York City) was a jazz trumpeter who is perhaps best known for making concised versions of jazz and swing standards that appealed to a mass audience. In jazz he might be best appreciated for his work with Stuff Smith. He was sometimes referred to as "King Louis II."
He began in the 1920s playing on Mississippi riverboats and then in 1928 he joined with Horace Henderson. Later he worked with Jimmie Lunceford and had an early collaboration with Stuff Smith in 1932. From 1932-1936 he had a successful collaboration with Smith, but in the 1940s he worked in big bands like Benny Carter's and Fletcher Henderson. He would spend most of decade with Cab Calloway's band which later became a combo.
Starting in the 1950s he had his own quartet and began concentrating on a formula which gained him wider appeal for a decade. The most mentioned accomplishment of this style is perhaps their version of "On The Street Where You Live." This effort succeeded and he began to be known to a wider audience. This led to his quartet performing on An Evening With Fred Astaire in 1958 and won at the Grammy Awards of 1960. That stated in 1972 he made a return to more "core" jazz work with Earl Hines.
He was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999 and died the following year.
