Harold Jones

Harold Jones (born February 27, 1940) is an American traditional pop and jazz drummer who is best known as the drummer for Tony Bennett and for his five years with the Count Basie Orchestra.

In a career spanning six decades, Jones has toured and recorded with Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, B.B. King, and Ray Charles. He has also played with major symphony orchestras, including those in Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vienna.

Born and raised in Richmond, Indiana, Jones's parents encouraged his childhood musical development. Already a skilled drummer by high school, his mother drove him to Indianapolis, Indiana, to perform with Wes Montgomery, who left the stage with his band while Jones played a twenty-minute drum solo.

He attended the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago on a scholarship, then took work where he could find it, including theaters and night clubs. In 1967, while house drummer at the Chicago Playboy Club, he was invited to New York for what was intended to be a two-week engagement with Count Basie's orchestra but which lasted five years. Jones played on fifteen albums with Basie. He also appears in a scene featuring the Basie band in the movie Blazing Saddles.

Jones says he was an avid student of other drummers, but he was especially influenced by one of Basie's drummers. "I am proud to say that I took everything that I could from Sonny Payne," he told an interviewer.

After leaving the Basie band, Jones was much in demand. He toured with Ella Fitzgerald, then for ten years with Sarah Vaughan. He also toured and recorded with Natalie Cole, including on her album Unforgettable... with Love. In 1962, he was a member of the Paul Winter Sextet, the first jazz group to play at the White House since the 1920s. The group had finished a tour of Latin America on behalf of United States Cultural Exchange Programs. Jones has played at the White House five times. Still a touring drummer, Jones also teaches drumming at college workshops.

Jones has lived for many years with his second wife Denise in Woodacre, California. The pair married June 9, 1983, and they have a son. Jones married his first wife, Paulette, in 1961. During their ten-year marriage they had a son and a daughter.

Jones's brother, Melvyn "Deacon" Jones, was a blues and soul organist.

In 2013 Jones was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame. In 1972 he won Best New Artist in the Down Beat magazine critics' poll. Saxophonist and band leader Paul Winter called Jones "the personification off jazz." Music critic Bruce H. Klauber has written that, "Jones is the quintessential big-band drummer with a crisp, clean sound notable for the high-pitched snare drum crack." Critic Jess Hamlin called Jones, "One of the best drummers in the business." Basie is said to have told drummer Louie Bellson that "Harold Jones was my favorite drummer."

Jones is the subject of a biography published in 2011, Harold Jones: The Singer's Drummer.

Unless otherwise noted, Information is based on Harold Jones' AllMusic web page

With Eddie Harris Jazz Band

• The Exodus to Jazz (Vee-Jay, 1961)
• Mighty Like a Rose (Vee-Jay, 1961)
• A Study in Jazz (Vee-Jay, 1962)

With Paul Winter Sextet

• Jazz Meets the Bossa Nova (Columbia Records, 1962)

With Bunky Green

• Playin' for Keeps (Cadet, 1966)

With Oscar Peterson

• Soul Español (Limelight, 1966)

With Red Callender

• Basin Street Brass (Legend, 1973)

With Marlena Shaw

• Marlena Shaw Live at Montreux (Blue Note Records, 1973)

With John Handy

• Carnival (ABC Records, 1977)

With Thomas Talbert

• Louisiana Suite (Sea Breeze, 1977)

With Benny Carter

• 'Live and Well in Japan! (Pablo, 1978)

With Sarah Vaughan

• Crazy and Mixed Up (Pablo, 1982)

With Richard Boone

• The Singer (Storyville, 1988)

With Andy Simpkins Quintet

• Calamba (Discovery, 1989)

With Marian McPartland

• Plays the Benny Carter Songbook (Concord Records, 1990)
• Silent Pool (Concord Records, 1997)

With Ernestine Anderson

• Live at the 1990 Concord Jazz Festival Third Set (Concord Records, 1991)

With Natalie Cole

• Unforgettable... with Love (Elektra Records, 1991)
• Take a Look (Elektra Records, 1993)
• Holly & Ivy (Elektra, 1994)
• Stardust (Elektra Records, 1996)
• Snowfall on the Sahara (Elektra Records, 1999)
• Still Unforgettable (Atco, 2008)

With Gene Harris

• Black and Blue (Concord Records, 1991)
• World Tour 1990 (Concord Records, 1991)

With B.B. King

• Live at the Apollo (GRP, 1991)

With Diane Schuur

• Pure Schuur (GRP, 1991)

With Walter Norris Trio

• Lush Life (Concord Records, 1991)

With Amy Grant

• Home for Christmas (A&M Records, 1992)

With Sarah Vaughan and Los Angeles Philharmonic

• Gershwin Live! (Columbia Records, 1982)

With Paul Winter Consort

• Spanish Angel (Living Music, 1993)

With Bruce Broughton

• Miracle on 34th Street: Original Soundtrack Album (BMG, 1994)

With Michael Feinstein

• Such Sweet Sorrow (Atlantic Records, 1995)

With Clark Terry

• Reunion (D'Note Classics, 1995)

With Michael W. Smith

• Christmastime (Reunion, 1998)

With Raquel Bitton

• Sings Edith Piaf (R.B., 1999)
• Dream a Little Dream (R.B., 2002)

With Quincy Jones & Sammy Nestico Orchestra

• Basie and Beyond (Warner Bros. Records, 2000)

With Robbie Williams

• Swing When You're Winning (Chrysalis Records, 2001)

With Larry Vuckovich and Jon Hendricks

• Reunion (Tetrachord, 2004)

With Tony Bennett

• Duets: An American Classic (Columbia Records, 2006)
• A Swingin' Christmas (Columbia, 2008)
• Duets II (Columbia, 2011)

With Pitbull

• El Mariel (Bad Boy Latino, 2006)
• The Boatlift (Bad Boy Latino, 2007)

With Elvin Bishop

• The Blues Rolls On (Delta Groove, 2008)

With Linda Hopkins

• Deep in the Night (View Video, 2009)

With John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John

• This Christmas (UME, 2012)

With Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga

• Cheek to Cheek (Columbia Records, 2014)

With João Gilberto

• João Gilberto and the Stylists of Bossa Nova Sing Antonio Carlos Jobim (Cherry Red, 2017)