Etta Jones (November 25, 1928 – October 16, 2001) was an American jazz singer. Her best-known recordings are "Don't Go to Strangers" and "Save Your Love for Me". She worked with Buddy Johnson, Oliver Nelson, Earl Hines, Barney Bigard, Gene Ammons, Kenny Burrell, Milt Jackson, Cedar Walton, and Houston Person.

Biography

thumb| Jones in Bryant Park, New York City, 1984

Early life

Jones was born in Aiken, South Carolina, She was raised in Harlem, New York, where she began performing as a teenager. After she impressed Buddy Johnson at an amateur night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, he invited her to join his band as a vocalist while his sister, Ella Johnson, was on maternity leave. She performed with the Earl Hines sextet from 1949 to 1952.

During the 1950s, Jones sought to obtain a recording contract, while working as a seamstress, elevator operator, and album stuffer. In 1956, she released the album The Jones Girl...Etta...Sings, Sings, Sings. She obtained a contract in 1960 with Prestige Records after impressing Prestige's preparatory director, Esmond Edwards, with her singing's warmth and phrasing via an unsolicited demo tape. Her first single, "Don't Go to Strangers," hit number five on the Rhythm and Blues chart, and 36 in pop charts, at a time when pop charts were dominated by white men. Over the next three years, she recorded ten albums for Prestige. Her favorite songwriter to cover was Sammy Cahn, and she also favored Harold Arlen, George and Ira Gershwin, and Cole Porter. He also produced her albums and served as her manager after the pair met in one of Johnny "Hammond" Smith's bands.

Although Etta Jones is likely to be remembered above all for her recordings on Prestige, she had a very productive musical career in the last two decades of her life. She had a close professional relationship with Person (frequently, but mistakenly, identified as Jones's husband), and they performed together for decades. Starting in 1976, they began recording for Muse, which later changed its name to HighNote. Person became her manager, as well as her record producer and accompanist, in a partnership that lasted until her death in 2001. They performed up to 200 times a year until she had to stop due to her health. Jones had dealt with cancer for more than a decade until the time of her death and had a mastectomy and chemotherapy. In 1996, she recorded the jazz vocalist tribute album, The Melody Lingers On, for the HighNote label. Her last recording, a tribute to Billie Holiday, was released on the day of Jones's death.

Jones married John Medlock, from Washington State. She died in Mount Vernon, New York, at the age of 72, from cancer.

Discography

  • The Jones Girl...Etta...Sings, Sings, Sings (King, 1958)
  • Don't Go to Strangers (Prestige, 1960)
  • Something Nice (Prestige, 1961)
  • So Warm: Etta Jones and Strings (Prestige, 1961)
  • From the Heart (Prestige, 1962)
  • Lonely and Blue (Prestige, 1962)
  • Love Shout (Prestige, 1963)
  • Hollar! (Prestige, 1963)
  • Soul Summit Vol. 2 (Prestige, 1963)
  • Jonah Jones Swings, Etta Jones Sings (Crown, 1964)
  • Etta Jones Sings (Roulette, 1965)
  • Etta Jones '75 (20th Century/Westbound 1975)
  • Ms. Jones to You (Muse, 1976)
  • My Mother's Eyes (Muse, 1978)
  • If You Could See Me Now (Muse, 1979)
  • Save Your Love for Me (Muse, 1981)
  • Love Me with All Your Heart (Muse, 1984)
  • Fine and Mellow (Muse, 1987)
  • I'll Be Seeing You (Muse, 1988)
  • Sugar (Muse, 1990)
  • Christmas with Etta Jones (Muse, 1990)
  • Reverse the Charges (Muse, 1992)
  • At Last (Muse, 1995)
  • My Gentleman Friend (Muse, 1996)
  • The Melody Lingers On (HighNote, 1996)
  • My Buddy: Etta Jones Sings the Songs of Buddy Johnson (HighNote, 1997)
  • Some of My Best Friends Are...Singers with Ray Brown (Telarc, 1998)
  • All the Way (HighNote, 1999)
  • Together at Christmas (HighNote, 2000)
  • Easy Living (HighNote, 2000)
  • Etta Jones Sings Lady Day (HighNote, 2001)
  • Don't Misunderstand: Live in New York with Houston Person (HighNote, 2007)