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Alan Jones

Alan Jones is a drummer, composer, teacher, and adventurer from Portland, Oregon

About Me

Known for his vitality and groove, Alan Jones is a passionate mountain climber, built his own drums (before endorsing Mapex!), and plays barefoot. TheTorontoGlobe and Mail called his trio performance at the Top of the Senator with Phil Dwyer and Rodney Whittaker one of the “Top 10 moments in Canadian jazz.”

Born in Longview, WA, Alan was raised in Portland, OR where at the age of 6 he began playing drums and guitar. By 16 he was on the road with the notorious organist from Amsterdam Count Dutch and Native American saxophonist Jim Pepper. Alan graduated from Berklee College of Music, studied with the master, Alan Dawson, and spent 2 summers at Banff Center for the Fine Arts in Canada. Alan has learned drumset and brush technique at the feet of Elvin Jones, was taught the shuffle by Art Blakey and has gotten invaluable insight and advice from Tony Williams, Jaco Pastorius and Billy Higgins.

He has performed, toured and/or recorded with a long list of some of the music's greatest artists including: Andrew Hill, Leory Vinnegar, Red Mitchell, Kenny Wheeler, David Friesen, John Abercrombie, Jim Pepper, Miroslav Vitous, John Clayton, Cecil Taylor, Bud Shank, Randy Brecker, Denny Zeitlin, Dave Liebman, Airto Moriera, George Cables, Lee Konitz, Ralph Towner, Ingrid Jensen, Dave Holland, Charles McPhereson and Esperanza Spalding. A master teacher in the best jazz tradition, Alan's love and understanding of music and his ability to communicate, both as a player and a teacher led him to the creation of The Alan Jones Academy of Music. AJAM is an innovative education system focused on personal and collective improvisation from grade school through retirement, and prompted the city of Portland to honor him with an award for “Outstanding Achievement in Jazz”. Students have been involved in projects ranging from collaborating with Michael Curry on multimedia stage presentations to balancing on tightropes to playing in international jazz festivals.

Alan's sextet CD's “Unsafe”, the “Leroy Vinnegar Suite” and “Climbing” were recorded and produced by pop/rock legend Gino Vannelli and highlight his trubine playing as well as his extensive and cutting-edge composing. Recordings with his band The Bridge Quartet on the CD's “Day and “Night” reflect a hard hitting live performance vibe on standard tunes, whereas the soundtrack composed for Michael Curry's massive stage production “Spirits” shows the jazz influenced world music side of Alan. Then there's the highly creative chord-less quartet The Fensters, represented on two recordings “Jazz Music Vol 1” and “Jazz Music Vol X” where each instrument plays an equal role in delivering groove, humor, jabs and knockouts. Alan's latest recording with Francois Theberge, “Another View”, is an ambitious work three years in the making and features over 20 musicians and 3 vocalists.

“...this is thoughtful material that reaches something deeper than the usual vocal Jazz Session, and experiment in songwriting and arranging that deserves attention.” - Jerome Wilson Cadence Magazine