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Darius Jones

Darius Jones, is an alto saxophonist, composer, and producer.

He joined the New York music community in 2005, after living and studying in Richmond, Va. Darius comes from a diverse musical background that has lead to his unique, alternative, and soulful approach to music. Jones has composed and performed in a wide variety of areas such as electro-acoustic music, chamber ensembles, contemporary jazz groups, avant-garde jazz groups, modern dance performances, and multi-media events.

Darius enjoys playing with a steady group of artists and improvisers. The current bands Jones works with are the Cooper-Moore Trio, Mike Pride’s From Bacteria to Boys, Nioka Workman’s House Arrest Band, William Hooker’s Bliss Quartet, Trevor Dunn’s Proof Readers, The Hub, Lewis Barnes' Hampton Roads, and Period.

Darius has collaborated with Andrew D'angelo, Esther Lamneck, William Parker, Flip Barnes, Jim Black, Charlie Looker, Dafna Naphtali, Sam Hilmer, Weasal Walters, Peter Evans, Nate Wooley, S.E.M Ensemble, Lisle Ellis, Rob Brown, Warren Smith, Alex Waterman, etc.

In New York, Darius has produced records for Korean jazz vocalist Sunny Kim and country-folk artist Mary Bragg. Jones has performed in Italy, France, U.S. and Canada.

Jones has a band with Travis LaPlante, Ben Greenberg, and Jason Nazary called Little Women, which recently went on a national tour to promote the release of their first record Teeth on Sockets and Gilgongo Records. Jones is the recent winner of the Van Lier Fellowship awarded by Roulette.

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Radio & Podcasts

2023 Look Back

Read "2023 Look Back" reviewed by David Brown


For this week's show, let's look back at 2023 and give a listen to projects that stuck with me in my listening. This is not a best of the year list. I think of it more of a revisiting of excellent works that I would highly recommend. Welcome friends and neighbors to The Jazz Continuum. Old, new, in, out... wherever the music takes us. Each week, we will explore the elements of jazz from a historical perspective. Playlist ...

Book Review

The Williamsburg Avant-Garde

Read "The Williamsburg Avant-Garde" reviewed by Paolo Peviani


The Williamsburg Avant-Garde -Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront Cisco Bradley 388 pagine ISBN: # 978-1-4780-1937-4 Duke University Press 2023 Le avanguardie musicali, o per meglio dire artistiche, non sono mai il prodotto di uno sforzo individuale. Sono piuttosto il risultato di movimenti e pulsioni culturali, politiche, economiche e persino urbanistiche che animano un determinato contesto sociale. Ce lo dimostra molto bene questo profondo e ben documentato libro ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Darius Jones, Lakecia Benjamin, Teddy Edwards and More

Read "Darius Jones, Lakecia Benjamin, Teddy Edwards and More" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


This show features saxophonists such as Darius Jones, Teddy Edwards, and Lakecia Benjamin, the big band music of Horace Tapscott, and a lot more. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Henriette Muller “Memories of a Swan Song" from Memories of a Swan Song (Konnex) 00:54 Dayna Stephens Trio “Planting Flowers" from Liberty (Contagious Music) 8:03 Host Speaks 12:46 Wolfgang ...

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Live Review

Other Minds 25, Day 3

Read "Other Minds 25, Day 3" reviewed by John Chacona


Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 Taube Atrium Theater Other Minds Festival San Francisco, CA October 16, 2021 Moment's Notice, the theme of the 25th Other Minds festival, was a wry comment on the perils of mounting a music festival in a time of uncertainty. It's an undertaking that requires not only a Plan B, but an entire alphabet of alternatives. Festival curator Harry Bernstein had ...

4
Album Review

Darius Jones: Raw Demoon Alchemy (A Lone Operation)

Read "Raw Demoon Alchemy (A Lone Operation)" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Saxophonist Darius Jones' solo recording Raw Demoon Alchemy (A Lone Operation) is the embodiment of the word unpasteurized. Captured in the fall of 2019, the music is raw and untreated. Maybe 'pure' is a better word here. The musician known for his muscular approach to the alto saxophone lowers the armored facade we all seem to wrap ourselves in these days. He delivers covers of five compostions, four from what he describes as “unapologetically Black" composers, Sun Ra}, Ornette Coleman, ...

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Album Review

Eric Revis: Slipknots Through a Looking Glass

Read "Slipknots Through a Looking Glass" reviewed by John Sharpe


On Slipknots Through a Looking Glass, bassist Eric Revis helms a five strong unit to experimental ends juxtaposing emotionally ambiguous abstraction with gut punch drive. To cover the bases he unites saxophonists Bill McHenry and Darius Jones from the quartet which waxed In Memory Of Things Yet Seen (Clean Feed, 2014), with the pianist Kris Davis from Sing Me Some Cry (Clean Feed, 2017), along with drummer Chad Taylor who powered both. Joining on two numbers out of 11 is ...

4
Album Review

Eric Revis: Slipknots Through a Looking Glass

Read "Slipknots Through a Looking Glass" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Eccola la nuova formazione del contrabbassista Eric Revis, un incontro di storici collaboratori che promette meraviglie. Al quartetto che licenziò nel 2014 In the Memory of Things Yet Seen si aggiunge la pianista Kris Davis già presente nel precedente City of Asylum e nel successivo Sing Me Some Cry (tutti per Clean Feed) e il cerchio si chiude. Il percorso di Revis parte da lontano, l'esperienza iniziale con Betty Carter, la lunga permanenza nel quartetto di Branford Marsalis, ...

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3

Recording

Darius Jones' New Album To Be Released August 21 On AUM Fidelity

Darius Jones' New Album To Be Released August 21 On AUM Fidelity

Source: Steven Joerg

On August 21, 2015, AUM Fidelity will release alto saxophonist-composer Darius Jones' new album, the 5th installment in his ongoing Man'ish Boy epic. This acclaimed series began in 2009 with his debut, Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing), and shall be comprised of nine albums. This release arrives soundly at the mid-way point with aplomb. Le bébé de Brigitte (Lost in Translation) is performed by the Darius Jones Quartet featuring Emilie Lesbros. As ever with Jones’ work, the compositional ...

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Event

Darius Jones To World Premiere New Work, The Oversoul Manual, At Roulette, Brooklyn On March 6

Darius Jones To World Premiere New Work, The Oversoul Manual, At Roulette, Brooklyn On March 6

Source: Steven Joerg

On Thursday, March 6, composer-alto saxophonist Darius Jones will present the world premiere of The Oversoul Manual at Roulette in Brooklyn. An a cappella work crafted in and utilizing a heretofore unheard alien language, it will be performed by his all-female vocal quartet, The Elizabeth-Caroline Unit, featuring Amirtha Kidambi, Sarah Martin, Jean-Carla Rodea, Kristin Slipp. Introducing a new verse and set of characters in Jones' ongoing Man'ish Boy epic, The Oversoul Manual signifies both an elemental part of his mythology ...

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Recording

Darius Jones - Big Gurl (Smell My Dream) (Aum Fidelity, 2011)

Darius Jones - Big Gurl (Smell My Dream) (Aum Fidelity, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Since alto saxophonist Darius Jones moved north from Virginia to New York City in 2005, he has created quite a splash with his own work as a leader and sideman, and as part of the punk-jazz collective Little Women. Accompanied by his working band which consists of Adam Lane on bass and Jason Nazary on drums, the music has the spaciousness to move from bop-based jazz to free music, using space as a malleable entity. Jones uses his raw saxophone ...

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Performance / Tour

Darius Jones Trio Comes to Outpost 186, Cambridge Friday October 14th

Darius Jones Trio Comes to Outpost 186, Cambridge Friday October 14th

Source: Chris Rich

Rob Chalfen & Subconscious Cafe new music presents the Darius Jones Trio. “Some of most beautiful sounds ever committed to disc" —John Sharpe, AllAboutJazz.com) “An incredible recording that will make you sing, make you weep and make you marvel" —Jason Crane, PopDose.com Darius Jones is an extraordinarily gifted young alto saxophonist and composer; Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing) is his remarkable debut as a leader. Jones joined the New York music community in 2005, after living and studying ...

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Recording

Darius Jones Trio - Big Gurl (Smell My Dream) (2011)

Darius Jones Trio - Big Gurl (Smell My Dream) (2011)

Source: Something Else!

Darius Jones might be the fastest rising star in the whack jazz world or at least, the fastest rising alto saxophonist within that realm.Man'ish Boy (A Raw And Beautiful Thing)) and a great, primal punk jazz album last year with Little Women, Jones solidified his position among the current crop of improvised music heavies earlier this year with his terrific duo record with Matthew Shipp, Cosmic Lieder. Given all that, his next solo record is bound to get more attention, ...

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Recording

Darius Jones and Matthew Shipp - Cosmic Lieder (Aum Fidelity, 2011)

Darius Jones and Matthew Shipp - Cosmic Lieder (Aum Fidelity, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Alto Saxophonist Darius Jones has made quite a splash for himself in the avant- jazz scene, with his debut album Mannish Boy and his playing in the extraordinary collective Little Women.

Joining forces with the great pianist Matthew Shipp was a masterstroke, as the two musicians complement and combat each other on a series of thirteen short improvisations. Jones and Shipp start off slowly like two boxers feeling each other out in the early rounds of a bout, before delving ...

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Recording

Darius Jones and Matthew Shipp - Cosmic Lieder (2011)

Darius Jones and Matthew Shipp - Cosmic Lieder (2011)

Source: Something Else!

By S. Victor Aaron Going from unknown two years ago to co-leading a duet record with Matthew Shipp is a meteoric rise in the avant jazz world, much less any world, but that's just what alto saxophonist has accomplished in this short time frame. In the fall of 2009, Jones released his debut album, the critically praised Man'Ish Boy. I managed to miss out on that one, but stumbled upon him on two occasions last year when examining new releases ...

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Interview

"Man'ish Boy" Saxophonist Darius Jones Interviewed at All About Jazz

"Man'ish Boy" Saxophonist Darius Jones Interviewed at All About Jazz

Source: John Kelman

Alto saxophonist Darius Jones—who won most critics' nomination for the best jazz newcomer album of 2009 for Man'ish Boy (A Raw And Beautiful Thing) (AUM Fidelity, 2009)—is a great fan of Johnny Hodges. He says that the lyrical Duke Ellington altoist is his hero, and this is pleasantly noticeable at the beginning of Man'ish Boy. It is also a good thing; not only did Hodges possess one of the most beautiful sounds in music, but Jones' focus on Hodges-like bends ...

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Performance / Tour

Darius Jones Trio to Play New York, Seattle and Vancouver in October

Darius Jones Trio to Play New York, Seattle and Vancouver in October

Source: Improvised Communications

Two weeks from tonight, on October 14th, alto saxophonist/composer Darius Jones and his working trio, featuring bassist Adam Lane and drummer Jason Nazary, will perform at SALT Space in New York as part of Destination:Out's new Loft/Lab concert series. The following week, the band (with Ryan Sawyer sitting in for Nazary) will make its first-ever trip to the West Coast for dates at The Ironworks in Vancouver (10/22) and the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle (10/23). Jones is a rising ...

"An alto saxophone player whose sound drips with passion .. Jones has a talent for penning intensely emotional themes, which provide a fertile launching pad for his vibrato-laden alto preaching. .. the valedictory, elegiac "Forgive Me" sounds like a newly found spiritual, with some of most beautiful sounds ever committed to disc." —ALL ABOUT JAZZ, John Sharpe

"4-Stars. Today, he demonstrates that his musical persona will not be easily pigeonholed." —DOWNBEAT, Alain Drouot

"Equally earthy and avant-garde .. intellectually stimulating [though] anything but academic .. Jones can keen, weep, caress–and cut, too. The appealing unruliness to his music coexists with authority." —JAZZTIMES, Carlo Wolff

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

fLuXkit Vancouver...

Northern Spy Records
2023

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Raw Demoon Alchemy (A...

Northern Spy Records
2021

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Slipknots Through a...

Pyroclastic Records
2020

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Life in the Sugar...

National Arts Center
2013

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Book of Mae'bul...

AUM Fidelity
2012

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