Joe Jones

Joe Jones could refer to two different acts: 1. Joe Jones (1934 New York City - 1993 Wiesbaden) was an avantgarde composer associated with fluxus especially known for his creation of rhythmic music machines. Jones grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and received a classical musical education at Hartnett Music School in New York City. In the late 1950s he began a short career as a jazz drummer. In 1960 Jones began to study experimental composition first briefly with John Cage and then Earle Brown. Through these associations he formed an artistic alliance with Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, and La Monte Young. He first started experimenting with mechanical instruments in 1962, creating objects like musical boats, solar music umbrellas and a pedaled vehicle that pulled handmade instruments on wheels called "The Longest Pull Toy in the World". The following year his works were exhibited at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York City. Beginning in 1963 Jones participated in the fluxus art movement, taking part in a number of fluxus performance art activities with his automaton-like music machines - made from found ready-made instruments. In 1963 he performed his machinic noise music at the Yam festival in New Brunswick and a year later he performed again at the Avantgarde Music Festival in New York City. He created many machine drum exhibitions and art actions in New York City and Nice, France during this period. In 1969 he opened his own "Music-Store" at 18 N. Moore Street in New York City. There he presented his repetitive drone music machines in the window so that anyone could press the numerous door buttons to play the machine noise music in the window. He also gave small musical installation performances by himself and musicians such as Yoko Ono and John Lennon, among others. After moving out of 18 N. Moore his store-loft space became the art studio of fluxus archivist and digital artist Joseph Nechvatal, then the once The Theatre Of Eternal Music member Jon Hassell and finally video artist Bill Viola before being merged into Walkers Restaurant. In 1971 Jones produced the album Fly together with John Lennon and Yoko Ono and founded the 'Fluxus-Airline' with George Maciunas. Jones made automated instruments for Yoko Ono's recordings "Don't Count The Waves, You" and "Airmale" that appear on her Onobox. Soon after Jones left New York for Europe; living in Amsterdam, Asolo, Berlin, Düsseldorf and finally Wiesbaden and continued to exhibit worldwide in galleries and museums. Since the mid-eighties Jones produced short digital art films on computer that he called "Fluxus-Home-Movies". He also devised larger orchestra-like installations with his music machines called "Solar Orchestras" that would be performed from when the sun comes up to the sun goes down by solar power.In 1988 his works could be seen at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne and in 1992-93 there was a big touring exhibition with stops in Helsinki, Nuremberg, Rotterdam and Wuppertal. 2. Joe Jones (August 12, 1926 – November 27, 2005) was an American R&B singer, songwriter and arranger, who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jones is also generally credited with discovering The Dixie Cups. He also worked with B.B. King. As a singer, Jones' greatest hit was the Top Five 1960 R&B hit "You Talk Too Much", which also reached #3 on the pop chart. Ge served in the U.S. Navy before studying music at the Juilliard Conservatory of Music. He was a valet, then pianist and arranger for B.B. King. His debut solo single was "Will Call" (1954) on Capitol Records. In 1960, "You Talk Too Much" became a national success, but his subsequent releases were less successful. Jones claimed to have composed many songs, including the song "Iko Iko." Although his claims were originally successful, a federal jury and then Court of Appeals ruled that Jones did not write "Iko Iko," that his claims were fraudulent, and that the true writers were the band he managed, the Dixie Cups (the true original recording of this song had been released as Checker 787 by New Orleans singer and pianist Sugar Boy Crawford and his Cane Cutters in late 1953). The band hired music attorney Oren Warshavsky, who had previously won a case demonstrating that Jones fraudulently claimed ownership of another Mardi Gras classic song, "It Ain't My Fault." Jones also failed in his bid to claim ownership (though not as an author) to yet another Mardi Gras classic song, "Carnival Time." He also originally recorded "California Sun", which was made a hit by The Rivieras. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.