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Mike Jones

Specifically, Mike Jones performs music from what’s become known as the Great American Songbook for more people each year than any jazz pianist in the world. Really. This is because, as music director for the enduringly popular Penn & Teller Show in Las Vegas and other venues across the globe, he plays these classic standards in the “warm-up” hour – and during and between the onstage magic – for the millions of visitors who attend the show. In a career spanning four decades, Jones has wowed audiences with his virtuoso skills and stylistic flair – nowhere to greater acclaim than at the sold-out houses in New York that marked Penn and Teller’s 2015 six-week return to Broadway.

In general? Mike Jones plays the piano as if had more than 88 notes and as if each of his fingers were Usain Bolt.

How He Does It Mike Jones is a thoroughly modern throwback to what used to be called the “two-handed pianist,” which is not as obvious as it sounds. The term describes a jazz pianist who makes full use of the entire range of the instrument, and whose left hand prowess matches that of his right. Early jazz styles such as Stride and classic Swing offer prime meat for such virtuosic pianists, and when it comes to most effectively demonstrating the durable beauty of these idioms, Mike Jones has drawn plenty of praise as the modern master of these styles. Small wonder, since Jones used two of history’s greatest such pianists – the peerless Oscar Peterson and the latter-day stride exponent Dave McKenna – as his early models.

To quote one review: “While Jones’s right hand reels off vertiginous runs that rival the pyrotechnics of such legends as Oscar Peterson, Earl Hines, and Art Tatum, his left spins elaborate walking bass lines – at top speeds they turn into manic stride patterns – that seem less like accompaniment than a separate and completely satisfying performance.” That’s how he does it. And then he throws in a running commentary of quick-witted musical allusions – everything from old torch songs to The Twilight Zone theme – as a coup de grace.

For more than 30 years he’s dazzled listeners, in performance and on celebrated recordings, with displays of solo pianistic wonder. When his hands are moving faster than the eye can follow, he approximates the splendor of a full jazz orchestra.

How He Got Here Born and raised in Buffalo, NY – the only American city named after a huge smelly mammal – Jones attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, and after college he remained in the city, working with such eminent local players as Herb Pomeroy and Gray Sargent. After significant East Coast performances, appearances at the Floating Jazz Festival on the S.S. Norway and the Queen Elizabeth ll, and a series of recordings that established him as a world-class pianist steeped in the pre-bop jazz tradition, Jones relocated to Las Vegas. There he caught the ear of Penn Jillette who, in 2002, brought Jones onboard for the nightly Penn and Teller show at Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.

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24
Album Review

Mike Jones: Are You Sure You Three Guys Know What You're Doing?

Read "Are You Sure You Three Guys Know What You're Doing?" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Some years ago, after Penn Jillette heard Mike Jones playing in a small club in Las Vegas, he approached the pianist, introduced himself, and said he would like to hire Jones to open his popular magic show, Penn & Teller--on one condition. And what might that condition be, Jones asked, to which Jillette replied, “I'm your bassist." Jones readily agreed, starting a long-running collaboration that has led at last to this superlative album --with Jillette on bass, of course, and ...

3
Album Review

Mike Jones / Penn Jillette / Jeff Hamilton: Are You Sure You Three Guys Know What You're Doing?

Read "Are You Sure You Three Guys Know What You're Doing?" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


If the tired old cliché “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" ruled the roost, perhaps the talents of pianist Mike Jones might have been limited to being the music director for the Penn & Teller Las Vegas show of mind-blowing illusions. Fortunately, a tired old cliché is just that. Jones' dynamic talent and creativity could not be “kept under a bushel." He joined forces with the exceptional and versatile drummer Jeff Hamilton and the surprisingly talented bassist Penn Jillette, ...

5
Album Review

Mike Jones: All By Myself

Read "All By Myself" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


While jazz is a social music through and through, solitude has always spurred creation too. And in the age of COVID-19, when safety often stands in the way of musical gatherings, solo efforts seem to be the way to go. For pianist Mike Jones, the idea of playing solo piano is far from a stretch. Jones first drew serious attention for his Dave McKenna-inspired, “three-handed" feats on a series of solo efforts for the Chiaroscuro label starting ...

4
Album Review

Mike Jones/Penn Jillette: The Show Before The Show

Read "The Show Before The Show" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


If you travel to Sin City and visit the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino at the appointed time, you'll find legendary duo Penn & Teller entertaining a packed house in their namesake theater with their signature blend of magic and humor. But if you get there forty-five minutes early, you get so much more with the addition of the show before the show. That's when Penn & Teller's musical director--pianist Mike Jones--lets his Dave McKenna-style chops off the leash on ...

10
Album Review

Mike Jones Trio: Roaring

Read "Roaring" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


The musical legacy of The Roaring Twenties is alive and kicking. For his second date on the Capri imprint, pianist Mike Jones decided to pull together a collection of Jazz Age nuggets and drop into the studio for a nonchalant session with bassist Katie Thiroux and drummer Matt Witek--a blue-chip rhythm duo whose musical stock has steadily been on the rise in the past few years. Jones had never recorded with the pair before, there were no rehearsals, and everything, ...

3
Album Review

Mike Jones Trio: Plays Well with Others

Read "Plays Well with Others" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Pianist Mike Jones not only Plays Well with Others, he plays well--period. Using a sharp, two-fisted style that hearkens back to Dave McKenna, Dick Hyman and even Earl Hines, undergirded by a buoyant melodicism worthy of Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan or his namesake Hank Jones, it's clear there's not much that Jones can't accomplish musically with keyboard in hand. And when the “others" he is playing with are bassist Mike Gurrola and drummer Jeff Hamilton, so much the better.

7
Album Review

Mike Jones: Plays Well With Others

Read "Plays Well With Others" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Pianist Mike Jones has got a really sweet deal going. He is the opening act for the Penn and Teller Las Vegas Show. He is also now the heir apparent to the late pianist Gene Harris' commanding style of two-handed keyboard barrel housing. Harris was a master of propulsive and deliberate piano playing. He had all the firepower needed to make whatever he played: ballads, blues, jump tunes, up-tempo, no matter, when Gene Harris played something, you knew it was ...

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1

Recording

Mike Jones: Roaring

Mike Jones: Roaring

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

You have to give Penn Jillette and Teller credit. The two magicians/entertainers don't really need music during their shows. But the pair can't help it. They love jazz and improvisation, which they worship and view as musical slight of hand. They also really love pianist Mike Jones, who for the past 10 years has been their music director and performs duets with Jillette on bass on stage during their Las Vegas show. It's also not lost on Penn and Teller ...

1

Performance / Tour

Mike Jones: Plays Well with Others

Mike Jones: Plays Well with Others

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Jazz has a long history of pianists with punch. Earl “Fatha" Hines, Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson, Horace Silver and Bobby Timmons are just a handful. All had a tiger-like attack on the keyboard coupled with an acrobatic technique. About a month ago a CD by pianist Mike Jones arrived that sizzled with excitement and I thought to myself—the punch, it lives! Weeks later, critic, pal and Duke Ellington biographer Terry Teachout sent along an email raving ...

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Music Industry

5 Tough Lessons Former CEO Mike Jones Learned from MySpace

5 Tough Lessons Former CEO Mike Jones Learned from MySpace

Source: HypeBot

Michael Jones spent the last two years at MySpace, first as co-president and then as CEO, attempting to turn the company around. Despite a wide range of changes the relaunch never quite worked and Jones left in August as new owners took over. Now he shares the lessons he learned. When Michael Jones took what probably seemed like a very bad job as co-president at MySpace, ultimately becoming CEO and overseeing the last turnaround attempt, many people wondered why he'd ...

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Music Industry

Read MySpace CEO Mike Jones' Goodbye Email to His Staff

Read MySpace CEO Mike Jones' Goodbye Email to His Staff

Source: HypeBot

MySpace CEO Mike Jones sent an email to his staff of 400 today to announce the sale of the company to Specific Media. In the letter, Jones acknowledged that staff cuts would be deeper that expected (sources say well over 50%) and that he would be leaving the company within two months. Full Text Of CEO Mike Jones' Email To MySpace Staff: From: Mike Jones Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 11:26 AM To: Myspace All Subject: IMPORTANT COMPANY NEWS Importance: ...

139

Recording

Pianist Mike Jones Releases "Chicago Trio 2010" For Free Unlimited Download

Source: Bruce Eaton

Pianist Mike Jones has released Chicago Trio 2010—his first new recording in five years. Recorded live in July at Chicago's legendary Green Mill Jazz Club during a rare break from Jones' appearances with Penn and Teller in Las Vegas, the full- length recording is available for unlimited free download exclusively at jonesjazz.com Chicago Trio 2010 offers ample proof why Mike Jones has been hailed as the “great living Mainstream Monster of jazz piano" (Jeff Simon / The Buffalo News) with ...

Mike Jones- "Stretches Out" "As a jazz pianist, Jones commands a lavish arsenal of formidable weapons: the rumbling bass lines of an Erroll Garner or Dave McKenna, the meteoric right-hand phrasings of an Art Tatum or Bud Powell, the awesome chops of an Oscar Peterson or McCoy Tyner, the natural rhythmic swing of a Hampton Hawes or Horace Silver, the unerring taste and sensitivity of a Kenny Barron, Hank Jones or Bill Evans." - Jack Bowers, Cadence Magazine "Even if pianist Mike Jones provided nothing but the keyboard virtuosity for which he is developing a national reputation, he would be well worth hearing. But Jones brings much more to this tour de force recording, which places him in a league with such superior solo pianists as Dick Hyman and Dave McKenna." -Howard Reich, Los Angeles Times

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Location

Las Vegas

Clinic/Workshop Information

Mike talks about the history of jazz piano including demonstrations of different styles, and most specifically about solo playing. Students are encouraged to play in a master class environment, with Mike providing insight and helpful ideas to improve their playing.

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Are You Sure You...

Capri Records
2023

buy

All By Myself

Jonesjazz Records
2021

buy

Quarantime! The...

Self Produced
2021

buy

The Show Before The...

Capri Records
2018

buy

Roaring

Capri Records
2016

buy

Plays Well With Others

Capri Records
2013

buy

Perdido

From: Are You Sure You Three Guys...
By Mike Jones

The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else

From: All By Myself
By Mike Jones

Videos

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