Jones, Claude B.

Jones, Claude B., jazz trombone, vocals; b. Boley, Okla., Feb. 11, 1901; d. Jan. 17, 1962. Brother-in-law of Quentin Jackson. He started trombone at age 13 and played in the town band, then at Langston H.S. where he also doubled on trumpet and drums. He attended Wilberforce Coll., and also served as a musician in the Students’ Army Training Corps. He quit law studies at Wilberforce and subsequently joined the Synco Jazz Band in Springfield, Ohio (1922). This band later became McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, and he played with them until spring 1929. In May 1929, he joined Fletcher Henderson, originally to play in the show Great Day. He remained with Henderson until September 1934, except for two years with Don Redman (1931–33). After leaving Henderson, he played briefly in Chick Webb’s Band and then joined Cab Calloway in late 1934 (occasional vocal features with Cab’s Band including “Jes Naturally Lazy”). He left Calloway in January 1940 and after working with a number of N.Y. bands left full-time music in 1941 to manage his own sausage-manufacturing company. Nonetheless, he continued to gig on the side, and returned to full-time playing to join Duke Ellington (on valve trombone) in spring 1944. He left Duke in October 1948, then worked with Machito, and briefly with Henderson and Ellington (January--March 1951), before leaving music again to become an Officers’ Mess Steward on the S.S. United States; he died aboard the liner a decade later.

—John Chilton, Who’s Who of Jazz/Lewis Porter