The oldest Jones brother

For a special engagement at Prague Castle, legendary jazz pianist Hank Jones will be joined by Czech-American bassist George Mraz, a headliner in his own right, along with a rising star from Los Angeles, drummer Willi Jones III.

Jazz in general is best heard in intimate bars and clubs, late in the evening, played by trios and quartets. From the late 1940s through the '50s and early '60s, the place to hear it was New York City. This golden era of jazz was the starting point and foundation for Jones, a piano player, composer and bandleader who was born in Mississippi in 1918. Raised in Michigan, he moved to New York in 1944 at the invitation of sax player Lucky Thompson to join Hot Lips Page's band at the Onyx Club.

And so it was that during the waning years of swing, Jones had the opportunity to hear and play with Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach and Bud Powell, to name just a few of the luminaries who were leading jazz into a new sound called bebop.

In a recent interview for a Dutch documentary (available on YouTube), Jones offers the surprising revelation that he has never liked the name bebop because it doesn't dignify the style of the music - in his opinion, it denigrates it.

"The style that is called 'bebop' is a very serious style of music," he says. "It requires a great deal of agility and flexibility to play, and a knowledge of harmony that most people don't realize."

As for his own music, Jones says, "To me, music consists of melody, rhythm and harmony, and, if it lacks any of those three elements, then it isn't music anymore." He's held firm to that code for more than 60 years, as both a bandleader and sideman in countless other extraordinary jazz groups.  

Hank Jones' two younger brothers also became major jazz figures. Trumpeter and composer Thad Jones (1923-90) played with Count Basie before founding his own band with drummer Mel Lewis. Hank's other younger brother, Elvin Jones (1927-2004), is the esteemed drummer on John Coltrane's later recordings, including A Love Supreme, and countless other classic albums made by the likes of Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Sonny Rollins.

Mraz played with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra in the early 1970s, just a few years after he emigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia. As he explains it, "I arrived in the U.S. in September 1968. I had already made several recordings before [with SHQ, Jan Hammer, Pony Poindexter], so they already kind of knew about me. I pretty much started working within a week. Before I joined Thad and Mel's group, I worked with Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. After I left Oscar, I was hired by Thad and Mel. I had met Mel in Vienna in 1966."

The well-traveled Mraz also has a history with Hank Jones. "I first played with Hank in 1972 and have been playing with him on and off ever since," he says. He and Hank recorded a moving tribute to Thad Jones, Upon Reflection - The Music of Thad Jones, in 1993, playing as a trio with Elvin Jones on drums.

Drummer Willi Jones III, born in 1968, is no relation to the Jones brothers. His father was an accomplished jazz pianist, so, from an early age growing up in Los Angeles, Willi worked with jazz drummers and music instructors, finally graduating from the California Institute of the Arts. Nowadays, he is based in the New York area, playing with Roy Hargrove, Arturo Sandoval and Hank Jones among others, and he records on Black Note Records, a label he co-founded in 1992.

Without a doubt, Hank Jones is a true jazz survivor. So the opportunity to see him in a trio, playing mostly standards and some originals with master bass player Mraz and the young blood Willi Jones III at Prague Castle, is not to be missed.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at
features@praguepost.com