Thad Jones

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Thad Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and big band leader. He was born in 1923 in Pontiac, Michigan, into a musical family of ten. His older brother Hank was a pianist and his younger brother Elvin a drummer. Thad taught himself to play and became a professional musician at the age of sixteen. During the Second World War he played in American army bands. Afterwards, in 1954, he became a member of Count Basie's orchestra. For that band he wrote almost two dozen arrangements and compositions, including The Deacon and H.R.H.

Music and breakthrough

In 1963 he left Basie's orchestra and worked as an arranger in New York. With the drummer Mel Lewis he founded the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1965, which began in 1966 at the Village Vanguard. He led the band for twelve years. In 1978 it won a Grammy for Live in Munich. Later he moved to Copenhagen, where he led the Danish Radio Big Band and made it one of the best in the world. In 1979 he founded a new big band, Eclipse.

Influence

Thad Jones is regarded as one of the greatest trumpet soloists in jazz and also as one of the most important writers for big band. A Child Is Born, which appeared in 1970, is one of his best-known compositions. It shows how he used the large ensemble for a lyrical, quiet melody.

Listening

• 
  A Child Is Born · Thad Jones, 1970

Discography

Studio albums

• 1954The Fabulous Thad Jones
• 1955Jazz Collaborations, Vol. I
• 1956Detroit-New York Junction
• 1956The Magnificent Thad Jones
• 1956The Magnificent, Volume 3
• 1957After Hours
• 1957Mad Thad
• 1959Motor City Scene
• 1964A Little Juicy
• 1968The Big Band Sound of Thad Jones · Mel Lewis
• 1978A Tribute to Monk and Bird
• 1978By Jones, I Think We've Got It
• 1978Sonny Rollins Plays
• 1978Thad Jones, Mel Lewis & UMO
• 1980Eclipse
• 1991Thad Jones, Mel Lewis & UMO
• 1997Blue Rondo
• 2007The Fabulous Thad Jones
• 2008Lust for Life
• 2013And the Danish Radio Big Band & Eclipse
• 2014After All - Ballad Artistry Only
• ?Mel Lewis Orchestra

Mentioned in other articles

• Big band GenreAfter the Second World War large orchestras became too expensive, but the form survived: Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, which played every Monday at the Village Vanguard from 1966, and today Maria Schneider.

See also

• The Fabulous Thad Jones
• Detroit-New York Junction
• The Magnificent Thad Jones