| John Jones | |
| Background: | solo_singer |
| Birth Name: | John Jones |
| Birth Date: | 12 December 1957 |
| Origin: | London, England, UK |
| Genre: | Rock, pop |
| Occupation: | Musician, record producer, songwriter, composer, audio engineer |
| Instrument: | Guitars, vocals, keyboards |
| Years Active: | 1975–present |
| Associated Acts: | Duran Duran, Celine Dion, Fleetwood Mac, Sir George Martin, Dan Hill, Steve Ferrone, Alan Frew |
John Jones (born 1957) is a British Canadian musician, record producer, songwriter and audio engineer who has worked with Duran Duran, Celine Dion, Fleetwood Mac, Sir George Martin, Dan Hill, Steve Ferrone, Alan Frew, and the Rolling Stones.
Jones' first proper recording session was at Toronto Sound Studio, the home of producer Terry Brown, where he assisted on sessions and learned to make tea, which led to his signing as a singer songwriter for music publishers CBS Songs and ATV Music.
In 1978, he joined CBS Canada pop group Bond, as keyboard/guitarist/vocalist, and performed on Bond's last recording; I Can't Help It. He later toured with the rock cover band "FUNN" (with Dee Long & Terry Draper of Klaatu), the show band "Canada", and Gary O's, "Kid Rainbow".
In 1979, Jones began a 15-year musical and business partnership with Dee Long of Klaatu.
In 1980, Jones, along with Dee Long, and drummer Frank Watt, designed, built and operated, ESP Studios, which was a 16-track analogue MCI studio, based around a Fairlight CMI in Buttonville, Ontario, where they worked on recordings for Klaatu, Alice Cooper, Gary O', Strange Advance, Dalbello, Rational Youth, Bob Ezrin, Red Rider, Images in Vogue, Dan Hill, The Partland Brothers and Glass Tiger.
While at ESP, Jones wrote hit songs for Priscilla Wright and the number one Rational Youth hit; Bang On, as well as composing scores for the films, Hot Money with Orson Welles, A Perfect Stranger, and the TV Series "Blue Murder", with Bob Segarini.
In 1985, Jones and Long relocated to London, England where, working with George Martin and John Burgess of Associated Independent Recording, they set up Studio 5, the Fairlight CMI computer/MIDI music studio of AIR Studios on Oxford Street.
Productions for Under Milk Wood, Yes, The Rolling Stones, Demis Roussos, Paul McCartney, Terence Trent D'Arby, Elton John, The Outfield, Mark Knopfler, Willy DeVille, Roy Wood and Duran Duran until AIR Studios relocated in 1992.
Jones performed on piano at the LSO Summer Pops '87 at Barbican Hall, with Martin and he wrote the MIDI chapter in Martin's book; Making Music, and appeared in a segment of BBC's Science In Action, filmed at AIR Studios, in Studio 5.
Jones and Long also worked on the development of the Akai S1000 sampler, producing one of the first Sample CD's, The AIR Sessions, which developed into the original sound library for the S1000 sampler.
Jones began working with Duran Duran at AIR Studios, where he produced the B side single, "This Is How A Road Gets Made", and programmed sampled sounds for their Big Thing tour. Soon after, he was working full time on their Liberty album, with producer Chris Kimsey, at Olympic Studio in Barnes.
During the Liberty sessions, Jones co-produced the promotional single, "Burning the Ground", which was made up of samples of Duran Duran songs, from their album release.[1]
In 1990, Jones created samples for John Cale for the album Songs for Drella. He worked again with Chris Kimsey on Paul Rodgers's Laying Down the Law, and on the Rolling Stones' Flashpoint (album), where he edited live tracks and created the intro piece, "Continental Drift."
Jones performed with Duran Duran at the Royal Albert Hall in 1991 for Vanessa Redgrave's Jerusalem for Reconciliation concert for UNICEF, and in April 1992, he played with Queen at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in London.
Between 1991 and 1993, Duran Duran and Jones co-produced the comeback record, The Wedding Album with the band.[2] Later that year, Jones produced Ny Donsk in Iceland, and in November, Jones performed with Duran Duran for their MTV Unplugged show in New York.
1994 started with Alan Frew's, Hold On, recorded in Los Angeles, for EMI Canada, where Jones co-wrote the album's hit song, So Blind, which won awards from the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada for the Most Performed Song of 1995 and for reaching Number 1.
Jones' next co-production with Duran Duran was their Thank You album of cover songs, released in 1995, which was voted #1 of the 50 Worst Albums Ever! by Q magazine in 2006.[3]
In 1996, Jones wrote and produced tracks for Dan Hill's I'm Doing Fine, spawning the top 10 song, Wrapped, and "These Strange Times" on Fleetwood Mac's Time, featuring Mick Fleetwood on lead vocal, as well as producing, engineering and performing on Dan Hill's song, Seduces Me, for Celine Dion.
John Jones was awarded the 1997 Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year (Producer), Album Of The Year (Engineer) and Pop Album Of The Year (Producer), Pop Album Of The Year (Engineer) for producing Celine Dion's Seduces Me, from the multi-platinum CD, Falling Into You.
During 1998, Jones composed scores for the award winning film, Stuart Bliss, and also the films, Lucky Lawson, and Ipola (composed with Steve Ferrone).
Jones released his first solo album of his own material called One Moment in Time in 1998. The album garnered three MP3.com Pop Chart number ones for the singles State Of Mind and Turning Me inside Out.
Jones' solo album; One Moment in Time, was re-released by Victor Entertainment in Japan in late 2001, to coincide with a Kirin Beer advertising campaign, for which Jones sang the lead vocal on the song, I'll Be There, recorded for Simon Le Bon's Japanese music company Syn Entertainment.
In 2003, Jones and drummer Steve Ferrone founded Drumroll Musicians Workshop studio in Burbank, California. They were joined by guitarist and producer, Steve Postell, working on productions and sessions including Ferrone's Farm Fur, Keb' Mo', Emily Richards, Edgar Winter, Jeff Golub, Sabian, Dean & Robert Deleo, Alex Ligertwood, and Brian Auger. Duting this time, Ferrone and Jones composed the score for the film, Puzzle.
2007 saw the start of Jones' collaboration with Richard Martinez and Meninos do Morumbi, the Brazilian school and social program for favela children, founded by Flavio Pimenta, for the Music is Hope Foundation.
In November 2009, Jones released his second solo album, black n white, with drums by Ferrone.
Jones worked with composer Nick Wood and Julian Lennon on the songs "Children of the World", benefitting cancer victims, and "Hope", also with Tetsuya Komuro, and the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, to aid victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Jones produced the 2015 album Meninos Do Morumbi & Friends. In 2018, Jones co-produced, with Steve Sidwell and Sam Reid, the Joey Niceforo orchestral pop album Priceless, which was recorded in London at Abbey Road Studios by engineer Steve Price, and conducted by Sidwell; Terry McDermott's U.K. single "Lost Again"; and McDermott's album Beautiful Destruction.
Partial John Jones production discography: