Darius Jones Trio

Darius Jones is an extraordinary young alto saxophonist whose passionate and intense playing is all the rage in New York City these days. Born in Virginia, the 31-year old instrumentalist lets his soulful Southern roots shine through on his impressive debut recording, Man’ish Boy (A Raw and Beautiful Thing). “A phenomenal debut,” raves All About Jazz. The Boston Globe rated the disc one of the Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2009 while declaring that Darius “plays both raucously and sweetly, and he puts every genre at his disposal, from blues to swing to free improvisation.” London’s The Wire notes that “with expressive glissandi as opulently sensual as that of Johnny Hodges, and a knack for flipping innocent melodic utterances into lines fraught with chancy harmonic and rhythmic ambiguities, Jones’s concept is proudly his own.” Combining gospel-inflected soul power with forward-looking expression, Darius Jones shows clearly the connection between juke joints and churches of the Deep South. His roof-raising tone and finely honed musical gifts are currently heard in bands led by William Hooker, Trevor Dunn, Lewis Barnes, and Mike Pride. Jones brings a terrific unit to town with Adam Lane bass and Ryan Sawyer drums.

Photo of Darius Jones at the Tea Room in NYC by Peter Gannushkin / DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET