John Paul Jones (musician)
John Paul Jones ( born January 3, 1946 in Sidcup, Kent; actually John Baldwin ) is known as the bassist of the British hard rock group Led Zeppelin. In addition to the bass Jones served there also the keyboards, he now also works as an arranger and music producer.
Career and work
Jones ' parents were musicians, his father a pianist and arranger, his mother a singer and dancer. So Jones learned to play the piano at a young age and soon after organ, which he played in the church.
At the age of 14 he began to play bass, although his father on the grounds that he " would never starve ," Saxophone recommended to learn.
In the following years he played in school bands and also in duet with his father. At 17 he left school and applied as a bassist Jet Harris and Tony Meehan in who were about to start a band. Jones was the bass player and toured for about a year with the band, which, ahead of their time, playing music in the style of Blood, Sweat & Tears or Chicago.
From 1964 to 1968 took his career as a studio musician, during which he played with numerous rock and pop stars of the time. Among other things, he can be heard on the following recordings:
- 2,000 Light Years From Home of the Satanic Majesties Request LP The Rolling Stones (1967 )
- Mellow Yellow (1967) and Hurdy Gurdy Man (1968 ) by Donovan
- Ten Little Indians (1967 ) and other titles of the Yardbirds
- Different titles on the Truth - LP by Jeff Beck
- Different titles of Lulu, Tom Jones and Herman 's Hermits
During a session with Donovan, he learned that Jimmy Page, who had also worked very successfully until then as a studio musician, wanted to start a new band. His wife Mo persuaded him to ask Jimmy on the position of the bass player. As the ideal candidate Jimmy Page were not available, Jones got the job. The band was first called New Yardbirds and named during their first tour in 1968 Led Zeppelin to. The success of this pioneering and style- hard-rock formation is legendary. Jones played in this classical period usually the Fender Jazz Bass, also capture the Fender Rhodes electric piano. His funky, obviously influenced by James Jamerson style can be heard particularly good at Lemon Song ( 1969).
After the end of Led Zeppelin in 1980, Jones was in a variety of musical styles worked as an innovative producer and arranger, including for The Mission ( 1987), Ben E. King (1986 ), Cinderella (1990 ), the Butthole Surfers (1992 ) REM (1992 ), Peter Gabriel (1992 ), Raging Slab (1993) and the Foo Fighters ( 2005). He also worked on the soundtrack for Scream for Help and performed with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant at the Live Aid concert in 1985.
Together with the Greek- American artist Diamanda Galás, he released the album in 1994 Sporting Life. The songs contained on it have a frugal and punchy instrumentation ( mostly bass and drums ), giving the distinctive voice of Galás an enormous presence.
1998 Jones began working on his first solo album Zooma. The response of the rock art at Zooma was very positive, and the following world tour (1999-2000) was equally successful. In 2001, Jones released his second solo album The Thunder Thief. Both productions which have appeared on the record label Discipline Global Mobile by Robert Fripp, show a musical affinity for progressive rock à la King Crimson. The album includes Zooma consistently unconventional, bass - driven instrumental pieces in which received an interesting symbiosis virtuosity and sound Experimentalität. The album The Thunder Thief has not only instrumental progressive rock such as Leafy Meadows ( with a diffizilen guitar solo by Robert Fripp ) and folk - ballad pieces on, for example, that of Jones himself sung and accompanied on the piano at icefishing Night.
In 2004, he helped the young New Zealand hard rock band The Datsuns with during the recording of their second album Outta Sight / Outta Mind. To hear some songs on his keyboard game.
In early 2009 it was announced that he and Dave Grohl ( Foo Fighters, ex- Nirvana) and Josh Homme ( Queens of the Stone Age, ex- Kyuss ) the band Them Crooked Vultures. The eponymous debut album was released in Germany on November 13, 2009.