Jazz Articles about Mike Jones

About Mike Jones

Album Review

Mike Jones Trio: Plays Well with Others

Read "Plays Well with Others" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 24, 2013

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.

Album Review

Mike Jones: Plays Well With Others

Read "Plays Well With Others" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 16, 2013

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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Album Review

Mike Jones: Mike Jones Stretches Out (in Las Vegas)

Read "Mike Jones Stretches Out (in Las Vegas)" reviewed by AAJ Staff

by AAJ Staff
April 12, 2002

I read while listening to music, as many people do. I read lots of different things: sports magazines, novels, email, psychology research papers. I love to do this, and it isn't often I listen to an album that distracts me from my reading simply by what it presents. This album was an exception, however.

I also listen to these albums as I write their reciews, so if there's a disjointed thought read here...well...forgive me.

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Album Review

Mike Jones: Mike Jones Stretches Out (in Las Vegas)

by AAJ Staff
March 1, 2002

I also listen to these albums as I write their reciews, so if there's a disjointed thought read here...well...forgive me.

Mike Jones ...

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Album Review

Mike Jones: Stretches Out

Read "Stretches Out" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 1, 2002

Mike Jones resides at the end of a piano lineage that includes Dick Hyman, Dave McKenna, Dick Wellstood, Ralph Sutton, and Art Hodes. All of these pianists I consider to be “full service" players. They are full service in the respect that they are fluent in most, if not all, jazz and popular styles and all possess a well-stocked repertoire of tunes. They invariably become regulars at traditional jazz functions and all have superb left hands. They are keepers of ...

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Album Review

Mike Jones: Live At Steinway Hall

Read "Live At Steinway Hall" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 1, 2001

Pianist Mike Jones is throwback musician. His music is a vestige of a time when stride and swing piano co-existed in jazz. This record made at Steinway Hall in 1997 is about a man, just one solitary man working through some classic tunes. Played any other way, making this a duo, trio, or quartet record would conceal his massive chops. Jones’ talent at the two-handed approach calls to mind Teddy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, George Shearing, and of course Art Tatum. ...

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Album Review

Mike Jones: Live at Steinway Hall

Read "Live at Steinway Hall" reviewed by Dave Nathan

by Dave Nathan
October 1, 2000

Buffalo native Mike Jones clearly has listened to and learned from them all, Erroll Garner, Willy “The Lion" Smith, Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, Teddy Wilson, and Art Tatum, especially Art Tatum. The arpeggios and the emphasis on the melody-driven right hand reminds one of the master pianist. Not only is a pianist known by those who influenced him, but also by the songs he plays. On this album, all but one of the tunes are classic entries in the Great ...