Rodney Jones

Guitarist Rodney Jones was born on August 30, 1956 in New Haven, Connecticut to Mary Ellen Cooley and Lawrence Neale Jones. He studied at the City College of New York.

Jones started playing the guitar at age six. In 1976, at the age of twenty, he began touring with Dizzy Gillespie. His first solo album, The Liberation of Contemporary Jazz Guitar, was released by Strata-East in 1977. In 1989, Jones joined the Maceo Parker Band for three years. In 2001, he was hired as a professor at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. In 2007, he joined the faculty of The Juilliard School as a professor of jazz guitar studies. Jones also served as the staff guitarist for the Rosie O’Donnell Show from 1996 to 2002 and the house guitarist for Showtime at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem for nine years. Jones has written commercials and has had more than 125 compositions recorded. Jones is the owner of New Tide Music, Inc., and has led jazz workshops and master classes worldwide.

Jones has toured internationally and performed and recorded with James Brown, Lena Horne, Quincy Jones, Elvin Jones, Kenny Burrell, Stan Getz, Christian McBride, Stevie Wonder, and others. Also, he served as musical director and producer for Lena Horne, Ernestine Anderson, Gloria Lynne, Ruth Brown, and more. Jones’s albums have been released by Timeless, MusicMasters, Minor Music, Blue Note, HighNote, Savant, 18th and Vine, and his own label. His discography includes Articulation (1978), When You Feel the Love (1981), Friends (1981), My Funny Valentine (1983), The Unspoken Heart (1992), The “X” Field (1996), Right Now (1996), The Undiscovered Few (1999), Soul Manifesto (2001), Soul Manifesto Live! (2003), Dreams and Stories (2005), A Thousand Small Things (2009), The Journey of Soul (2013), The Resonance of Love (2012), and The Beloved (2017). His book Hip Guitar Lines: The Lines, Fingerings, and Ideas That Will Transform Your Playing was published in 2020.

Jones and his wife, Rachel Jones, live in Danbury, Connecticut. They have four daughters, Leana Phipps, Serena Howerton, Laura Jones, and Cara Jones.

Rodney Jones was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on March 30, 2022.