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Mike Jones: Are You Sure You Three Guys Know What You're Doing?
by Jack Bowers
Some years ago, after Penn Jillette heard Mike Jones playing in a small club in Las Vegas, he approached the pianist, introduced himself, and said he would like to hire Jones to open his popular magic show, Penn & Teller--on one condition. And what might that condition be, Jones asked, to which Jillette replied, “I'm your bassist." Jones readily agreed, starting a long-running collaboration that has led at last to this superlative album --with Jillette on bass, of course, and ...
read moreMike Jones / Penn Jillette / Jeff Hamilton: Are You Sure You Three Guys Know What You're Doing?
by Pierre Giroux
If the tired old cliché “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" ruled the roost, perhaps the talents of pianist Mike Jones might have been limited to being the music director for the Penn & Teller Las Vegas show of mind-blowing illusions. Fortunately, a tired old cliché is just that. Jones' dynamic talent and creativity could not be “kept under a bushel." He joined forces with the exceptional and versatile drummer Jeff Hamilton and the surprisingly talented bassist Penn Jillette, ...
read moreMike Jones: All By Myself
by Dan Bilawsky
While jazz is a social music through and through, solitude has always spurred creation too. And in the age of COVID-19, when safety often stands in the way of musical gatherings, solo efforts seem to be the way to go. For pianist Mike Jones, the idea of playing solo piano is far from a stretch. Jones first drew serious attention for his Dave McKenna-inspired, “three-handed" feats on a series of solo efforts for the Chiaroscuro label starting ...
read moreMike Jones/Penn Jillette: The Show Before The Show
by Dan Bilawsky
If you travel to Sin City and visit the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino at the appointed time, you'll find legendary duo Penn & Teller entertaining a packed house in their namesake theater with their signature blend of magic and humor. But if you get there forty-five minutes early, you get so much more with the addition of the show before the show. That's when Penn & Teller's musical director--pianist Mike Jones--lets his Dave McKenna-style chops off the leash on ...
read moreMike Jones Trio: Roaring
by Dan Bilawsky
The musical legacy of The Roaring Twenties is alive and kicking. For his second date on the Capri imprint, pianist Mike Jones decided to pull together a collection of Jazz Age nuggets and drop into the studio for a nonchalant session with bassist Katie Thiroux and drummer Matt Witek--a blue-chip rhythm duo whose musical stock has steadily been on the rise in the past few years. Jones had never recorded with the pair before, there were no rehearsals, and everything, ...
read moreMike Jones Trio: Plays Well with Others
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Mike Jones not only Plays Well with Others, he plays well--period. Using a sharp, two-fisted style that hearkens back to Dave McKenna, Dick Hyman and even Earl Hines, undergirded by a buoyant melodicism worthy of Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan or his namesake Hank Jones, it's clear there's not much that Jones can't accomplish musically with keyboard in hand. And when the “others" he is playing with are bassist Mike Gurrola and drummer Jeff Hamilton, so much the better.
read moreMike Jones: Plays Well With Others
by C. Michael Bailey
Pianist Mike Jones has got a really sweet deal going. He is the opening act for the Penn and Teller Las Vegas Show. He is also now the heir apparent to the late pianist Gene Harris' commanding style of two-handed keyboard barrel housing. Harris was a master of propulsive and deliberate piano playing. He had all the firepower needed to make whatever he played: ballads, blues, jump tunes, up-tempo, no matter, when Gene Harris played something, you knew it was ...
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