Paul Jeffrey
Winard Harper
"Jeremy is shredding his drum kit like a samurai, using weapons that range from shakers to bells to mallets to the butte end of his own drumsticks. I have never seen a man play jazz drums with more intensity." - Colorado Music Buzz Magazine, March 2007
Intensity, passion, joy, and love pour out when Jeremy plays music. It is evident why he says "music can be a powerful pointer to a state of consciousness in which joy and peace are natural and spontaneous."
Jeremy Jones was raised in Denver, Colorado, and began playing drums in elementary school. Throughout high school Jeremy played in percussion ensemble, jazz ensemble, symphonic band. He also started playing original music in a band with some high school classmates.
Upon entering college at Duke University, Jeremy met tenor saxophonist and renowned jazz educator Paul Jeffrey. Before coming to Duke, Jeffrey had spent 30 years working with jazz giants such as Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus. Jeremy joined the Duke Jazz Ensemble, which Jeffrey directed, and enrolled in independent studies with Jeffrey each semester. During this period, Jeremy transcribed over 70 drum solos of jazz greats including Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, and Art Taylor. He also studied arranging and wrote numerous arrangements for the Duke Jazz Ensemble.
In 2000, Jeffrey hired Jeremy to play in the Paul Jeffrey Quintet. The band performed throughout the Raleigh-Durham area and toured Italy in 2001. Through this band Jeremy played with numerous visiting artists from New York including John Hicks, Ray Bryant, Joanne Brackeen, George Cables, Vincent Herring, Jimmy Greene, and Derrick Gardner.
While attending Duke, Jeremy met drummer Winard Harper, who came to Durham to perform in the Duke Jazz Festival. Jeremy spent the following summer in New York City studying with Harper and playing at jam sessions around the city. Later that summer, Jeremy subbed for Harper as faculty at the Jazz in July camp in Massachusetts. Jeremy has since performed multiple times with the Billy Taylor Trio, subbing for Harper.
In 2002, Jeremy was selected to perform in the Telluride All-Stars at the Telluride Jazz Festival. In both 2003 and 2005, he was selected to theBetty Carter Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center, a 10 day scholarship program for emerging jazz artists.
Presently Jeremy lives in Seattle. He leads the Jeremy Jones Xtet, which will release its first CD "Awakening to Life" on May 1st, 2008. The CD is comprised of 12 original compositions composed by Jeremy. The group features Thomas Marriott (trumpet), Steve Treseler (saxophone), John Hansen (piano), and Phil Sparks (bass). Jeremy is also playing in the explosive new trio "The Teaching" with keyboardist Josh Rawlings and bassist Evan Flory-Barnes. The group plays has been playing every Thursday night at the Lo-Fi in downtown Seattle for a year now with a continuous increase in the attendance of enthusiastic listeners.
Jeremy continues to return to Denver several times a year to play with saxophonist Serafin Sanchez in their group, the Serafin Sanchez / Jeremy Jones Quintet. The band regularly performs for full audiences at Dazzle Jazz Club and the D Note. In June 2007 they released their first CD "Live at Dazzle".