Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones

210 Pages·2011·1.865 MB·English

by  Papa Jo Jones, Paul Devlin (editor)

Rifftide
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Rifftide
The Life and Opinions of
Papa Jo Jones
Papa Jo Jones
as told to
Albert Murray
edited by
Paul Devlin
afterword by
Phil Schaap
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Copyright 2011 by Albert Murray and Paul Devlin
Afterword copyright 2011 by the Regents of the University of
Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jones, Jo, 1911–1985.
Rifftide : the life and opinions of Papa Jo Jones / Papa Jo Jones
as told to Albert Murray ; edited by Paul Devlin ; afterword by
Phil Schaap.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-7300-1 (hc : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8166-7301-8 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Jones, Jo, 1911–1985. 2. Jazz musicians—United
States—Biography. I. Murray, Albert. II. Devlin, Paul,
1980– . III. Title.
ML419.J69A3 2011
786.9'165092—dc22
[B] 2011008394
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator
and employer.
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
...so much in this society goes unrecorded.
—Ralph Ellison
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Contents
Editor’s Preface ix
Paul Devlin
Introduction: The Musical Life of Papa Jo Jones 1
Paul Devlin
Rifftide
I Have Had a Varied Life 27
Can’t Nobody Tell Me One Inch
about Show Business 31
The Count Basie Institution 47
They Said the Negro Would Never Be Free 65
My Thirst after Knowledge Will Never Cease 71
People I’ve Rubbed Elbows With 81
I Often Wondered Why I Was Such a Strange Fella 99
Afterword: The Persistence of Papa Jo Jones 111
Phil Schaap
Editor’s Notes 135
Index 163
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E ditor’s Preface
PAUL DEVLIN
...and [to] that raconteur par excellence Jo Jones, whose
colorful reminiscences could be edited into a statement of
some literary as well as documentary value.
—From the acknowledgments of
Albert Murray’s Good Morning Blues
T
his is an autobiography of Jo Jones (1911–1985), the
legendary jazz drummer. It was told to the writer
Albert Murray from 1977 to 1985. After Jones died
in 1985, Murray put the tapes they had recorded aside. In
2005, Murray loaned me the tapes so that I could transcribe
them and edit them into a book. In the book’s Introduction,
I tell the story of the remarkable life and career of Jo Jones;
here I describe how the tapes were transformed into this book.
I met Albert Murray when I was an undergraduate in col-
lege. I contacted him after reading several of his books, hop-
ing to ask a few scholarly questions, and we quickly became
friends. As a twenty-one-year-old immersed in books and
trying to learn about jazz, I was enthralled by Murray’s wit
and wisdom. His thoughts on music, literature, visual arts,
anthropology, current events, and history were intriguing to
a voracious young reader and energetic student. I spent many
afternoons in the early 2000s driving Murray around Man-
hattan: picking him up from different places, doing errands,
shopping with him for books at the Gotham Book Mart and
ix