RIP JJ

James E. Jones, b. 1950 in Cleveland, Ohio. Graduated from
Mayfield High School in 1968. He played baritone sax in the MHS
Marching Band, alto sax in the concert band, and discovered an affinity
for tape manipulation while in charge of the high school language lab.
Jim attempted two quarters at Cuyahoga Community College in ’69, but
his interest in music won out. He formed the short-lived band, Lazarus,
and worked as a clerk/buyer for Leo Mintz’s Record Rendezvous retail
chain for the next fifteen years. Jim started his own record shop,
Platter-Puss Records, in ’84. He sold the business in ’87 after joining
Pere Ubu. Jim got his first guitar in 1965, and taught himself to play
in a self-devised open tuning. He was/is profoundly moved by music in
nearly all forms, especially Indian music (thanks to George Harrison),
20th century classical & experimental, 50′s thru 60′s pop and mood
music, and of course "rock" in it’s many forms. Jim joined local
"underground" band, Mirrors, in ’74 as bass player. Mirrors shared gigs
with Rocket From The Tombs
and The Electric Eels (whom he later recorded with), and later
transformed into The Styrenes. In ’77 Jim quit The Styrenes and took
some time off from work to become a member of the Pere Ubu road crew,
doing the infamous Co-Ed Jail Tours of the US & Europe in support
of The Modern Dance lp. Back from the tours Jim and fellow roadie, Pat
Ryan, started a two-man experimental rock band called Foreign Bodies,
which released a single. The next few years saw Jim honing his skills
as a studio producer for a number of local Cleveland artists and bands,
recording his own music, and composing electronic pieces for local
theatre and dance companies. In 1980 Jim formed the raucous Easter
Monkeys, and concomitantly became a member of Scott Krauss And Tony
Maimone’s project, Home & Garden. Gigs were played and recordings
were released by both bands. Having worked with David Thomas And The
Pedestrians On The Variations On A Theme album in ’84, Jim was asked to
join David’s latest project, The Wooden Birds, in 1986. A year later
that group (with the addition of Scott Krauss) became the revived Pere
Ubu. Jim has recorded with the band since that time, but no longer
tours. He currently appears and records with local bands
Speaker\Cranker, Noble Rot, and KNG NXN as mainly a keyboardist. Jim
has overseen operations of the US arm of Ubutique in Cleveland since 1990. Click here for an interview with Jim Jones.

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Pere Ubu: Breath

Pere Ubu on "Night Music". An old late-night music/talk show hosted by David Sanborn