He is widely known as the producer of Michael Jackson’s successful album Thriller and by his other successes in pop music and film scores. However, Jones started his career on the jazz set, as an arranger for Count Basie, among others. Later he played trumpet with Dinah Washington and Dizzy Gillespie and studied composing in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and produced and arranged for Jacques Brel.
In the 1950s and 60s Jones recorded with his own big band and recorded a range of albums, among which This Is How I Feel About Jazz (1956) en The Quintessence (1961). The compositions and arrangements from that time were never released as sheet music and a great many of the scores were lost. Finnish composer and arranger Vellu Halkosami decided to write them down again ten years ago, based on old records and with the aid of the master himself.
At the festival, Jones is honored by the Metropole Orkest that will perform a number of his jazz arrangements.
