Thad Jones

Thaddeus Joseph Jones (March 28, 1923 – August 21, 1986) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader.

Biography
Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan, to a musical family of ten (an older brother was pianist Hank Jones and a younger brother was drummer Elvin Jones). Thad Jones was a self-taught musician, performing professionally by the age of sixteen. He served in U.S. Army bands during World War II (1943–46).

After Army service including an association with the U.S. Military School of Music and working with area bands in Des Moines and Oklahoma City, Thad became a member of the Count Basie Orchestra in May 1954. He was featured as a soloist on such well-known tunes as "April in Paris", "Shiny Stockings" and "Corner Pocket". However, his main contribution was his nearly two dozen arrangements and compositions for the Basie Orchestra, including "The Deacon", "H.R.H." (Her Royal Highness, in honor of the band’s command performance in London), "Counter Block", and lesser known gems such as "Speaking of Sounds". His hymn-like ballad "To You" was performed by the Basie band combined with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in their only recording together, and the recording Dance Along With Basie contains nearly an entire album of Jones’ uncredited arrangements of standard tunes.

Jones left the Basie Orchestra in 1963 to become a freelance arranger and studio player in New York. In 1965, he and drummer Mel Lewis formed The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra. The group initially began with informal late-night jam sessions among New York's top studio musicians. The group eventually began performing at the Village Vanguard in February 1966, to wide acclaim, and continued with Jones in the lead for twelve years. They won a 1978 Grammy Award for their album Live in Munich. Jones also taught at William Paterson College in New Jersey, which is now the site of the Thad Jones Archive, containing pencil scores and vintage photos as part of the Living Jazz Archives.

Jones' big-band arranging style was unique, especially from the standpoint of featuring dissonant voicings in a tonal context. This required the members of his big band to play correctly in tune, otherwise the dense chords he wrote would not sound correct. Minor 2nds and major 7ths are often featured in his voicings, especially when the entire band plays a long, powerful chord that some would describe as having "bite".

One of the more notable albums he made in this regard is Suite for Pops recorded on the A&M Records Horizon label (now out of print) in the early 1970s. It also featured the intense bebop improvisations of saxophonist Billy Harper and the high note screech playing of lead trumpet player Jon Faddis.

In October 1977, Thad suddenly moved to Copenhagen, Denmark (to the great surprise of his New York band mates), where several other American jazz musicians had gone to live. For the next six months he became the leader of The Danish Radio Big Band. He came back, still as co-leader of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, in December 1978 and continued as a leader and conductor for the Danish big band. He now left Mel Lewis and stayed in Denmark and married a Danish woman. Thad Jones transformed the Danish Radio Big Band into one of the world's best. The result can be heard on a live-recording from the famous Montmartre in Copenhagen. In July 1979 Jones formed a new big band, Eclipse, with which he recorded a live album, Eclipse. Several Americans were on the album, pianist Horace Parlan, baritonist Sahib Shihab, trumpeter Tim Hagans and trombonist/vocalist Richard Boone along with trombonists Bjarne Thanning and Ture Larsen, trumpeter Lars Togeby, altoists Ole Thøger and Michael Hove, tenor saxophonist Bent Jædig and Jesper Lundgaard on bass. He further composed for The Danish Radio Big Band and taught jazz at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen. He studied composition formally during this period, as well as taking up the valve trombone.

In February 1985, he returned to the U.S. to take the leadership of the Basie Orchestra upon his former leader's death, fronting the Basie band on numerous tours, and writing arrangements for recordings and performances with vocalist Caterina Valente and The Manhattan Transfer, but had to step down due to ill health. He returned to his home in Copenhagen for the last few months of his life. He died on August 21, 1986, after being hospitalized for months, but his cause of death was not published. In later years his playing ability was overshadowed by his composing and arranging skills. His best known composition is the standard "A Child is Born".

At the time of his death he had a six-year-old child, also named Thad Jones, with his Danish wife Lis Jones, a daughter Thedia and a son Bruce in USA. He is buried in Copenhagen's Vestre Kirkegård Cemetery (Western Churchyard Cemetery).

Thad Jones has a street named after him in southern Copenhagen, "Thad Jones Vej" (eng. Thad Jones Street).

As leader or co-leader

 * The Fabulous Thad Jones (Debut, 1954)
 * Detroit-New York Junction (Blue Note, 1956)
 * The Magnificent Thad Jones (Blue Note, 1956)
 * Mad Thad (Period Records, 1957)
 * Olio (Prestige, 1957) with The Prestige All Stars - Frank Wess, Teddy Charles, Mal Waldron, Doug Watkins, Elvin Jones
 * After Hours (Prestige, 1957) with The Prestige All Stars - Frank Wess, Kenny Burrell, Mal Waldron, Paul Chambers, Art Taylor
 * Keeping Up With the Joneses: featuring The Jones Brothers - playing the music of Thad Jones and Isham Jones (MGM, 1958), with brothers Hank and Elvin Jones, as well as bassist Eddie Jones (unrelated)
 * Motor City Scene (United Artists, 1959)
 * Greetings and Salutations (Four Leaf Clover, 1977) with Mel Lewis, Jon Faddis and the Swedish Radio Jazz Group (Lennart Åberg, Arne Domnérus, Bengt Hallberg, Georg Riedel, Rune Gustafsson, ...)
 * The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Quartet (Artist House, 1978) with Mel Lewis, Harold Danko, Rufus Reid
 * Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and UMO (RCA, 1978) with Mel Lewis and UMO (the Finnish 'New Music Orchestra')
 * Live at Montmartre (Storyville, 1978) with Idrees Sulieman, Allan Botschinsky, Jesper Thilo, NHOP.
 * Eclipse (Metronome, 1979) with Tim Hagans, Sahib Shihab, Horace Parlan, Jesper Lundgaard
 * Live at Slukefter (Metronome, 1980) with Tim Hagans, Sahib Shihab, Horace Parlan, Jesper Lundgaard

With the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra

 * Opening Night (2000) Alan Grant Presents
 * Presenting Thad Jones / Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra (1966) Solid State Records
 * Presenting Joe Williams and Thad Jones / Mel Lewis, The Jazz Orchestra (1966) Solid State
 * Live at the Village Vanguard (1967) Solid State
 * The Big Band Sound of Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Featuring Miss Ruth Brown (1968) Solid State
 * Monday Night (1968) Solid State
 * Central Park North (1969) Solid State
 * Basle, 1969 (recorded 1969, released 1996) TCB Music
 * Consummation (1970) Solid State / Blue Note
 * Suite for Pops (1972) Horizon / A&M
 * Live in Tokyo (1974) Denon Jazz
 * Potpourri (1974) Philadelphia International
 * Thad Jones / Mel Lewis and Manuel De Sica (1974) Pausa
 * New Life: Dedicated to Max Gordon (1975) A&M
 * Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra With Rhoda Scott aka Rhoda Scott in New York with... (1976)
 * Live in Munich (1976) Horizon / A&M
 * It Only Happens Every Time (1977) EMI Records – with Monica Zetterlund
 * Body and Soul aka Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra in Europe (1978) West Wind Jazz – Live in Berlin
 * A Touch of Class (1978) West Wind Jazz – Live in Warsaw

As sideman
With Kenny Burrell With Lou Donaldson With Kenny Drew With Curtis Fuller With Dexter Gordon With Herbie Hancock With Coleman Hawkins With Milt Jackson With Elvin Jones With Yusef Lateef With Charles Mingus With Thelonious Monk With James Moody With Oliver Nelson With Houston Person With Shirley Scott With Johnny "Hammond" Smith With Sonny Stitt With Ben Webster With Frank Wess
 * Blues - The Common Ground (Verve, 1968)
 * Ellington Is Forever (Fantasy, 1975)
 * Ellington Is Forever Volume Two (Fantasy, 1975)
 * Sassy Soul Strut (1973)
 * Lite Flite (SteepleChase, 1977)
 * Imagination (Savoy, 1959)
 * Tangerine (1972)
 * Speak Like a Child (1968)
 * The Hawk Swings (1960)
 * For Someone I Love (Riverside, 1963)
 * Elvin! (Riverside, 1961-62)
 * And Then Again (Atlantic, 1965)
 * Midnight Walk (Atlantic, 1966)
 * Mr. Jones (Blue Note, 1973)
 * Yusef Lateef's Detroit (Atlantic, 1969)
 * The Jazz Experiments of Charlie Mingus (Bethlehem, 1954)
 * 5 by Monk by 5 (1959)
 * Great Day (Argo, 1963)
 * More Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!, 1964)
 * The Spirit of '67 with Pee Wee Russell (Impulse!, 1967)
 * Houston Express (Prestige, 1970)
 * For Members Only (Impulse!, 1963)
 * Roll 'Em: Shirley Scott Plays the Big Bands (Impulse!, 1966)
 * Open House! (Riverside, 1963)
 * Sonny Stitt Plays Arrangements from the Pen of Quincy Jones (Roost, 1955)
 * Stitt Goes Latin (Roost, 1963)
 * Broadway Soul (Colpix, 1965)
 * Goin' Down Slow (Prestige, 1972)
 * Soulmates (with Joe Zawinul)  (Riverside, 1963)
 * See You at the Fair (Impulse, 1964)
 * Yo Ho! Poor You, Little Me (Prestige, 1963)