Born in
Vicksburg, Mississippi, Henry "Hank" Jones moved to
Pontiac, Michigan, where his father, Henry Jones Sr., a Baptist deacon and lumber inspector, bought a three-story brick home. One of seven children, Jones was raised in a musical family. His mother Olivia Jones sang; his two older sisters studied piano; and his two younger brothers—
Thad, a trumpeter, and
Elvin, a drummer—also became prominent jazz musicians.[8] He studied piano at an early age and came under the influence of
Earl Hines,
Fats Waller,
Teddy Wilson, and
Art Tatum. By the age of 13, Jones was performing locally in
Michigan and
Ohio. While playing with territory bands in
Grand Rapids and
Lansing in 1944, he met
Lucky Thompson, who invited Jones to work in
New York City at the
Onyx Club with
Hot Lips Page.[9][10]
In New York City, Jones regularly listened to leading
bop musicians, and was inspired to master the new style. While practicing and studying the music he worked with
John Kirby,
Howard McGhee,
Coleman Hawkins,
Andy Kirk, and
Billy Eckstine.[10] In autumn 1947, he began touring in
Norman Granz's
Jazz at the Philharmonic package,[10] and from 1948 to 1953 he was accompanist for
Ella Fitzgerald, and accompanying her in England in the fall of 1948,[11] developed a harmonic facility of extraordinary taste and sophistication. During this period he also made several historically important recordings with
Charlie Parker, which included "
The Song Is You", from the Now's the Time album, recorded in December 1952, with
Teddy Kotick on bass and
Max Roach on drums.
During the late 1970s and the 1980s, Jones continued to record prolifically, as an unaccompanied soloist, in duos with other pianists (including
John Lewis and
Tommy Flanagan), and with various small ensembles, most notably the Great Jazz Trio. The group took this name in 1976, by which time Jones had already begun working at the
Village Vanguard with its original members,
Ron Carter and
Tony Williams (it was
Buster Williams rather than Carter, however, who took part in the trio's first recording session in 1976); by 1980 Jones' sidemen were
Eddie Gómez and
Al Foster, and in 1982
Jimmy Cobb replaced Foster. The trio also recorded with other all-star personnel, such as
Art Farmer,
Benny Golson, and
Nancy Wilson. In the early 1980s Jones held a residency as a solo pianist at the Cafe Ziegfeld and made a tour of Japan, where he performed and recorded with
George Duvivier and
Sonny Stitt. Jones' versatility was more in evidence with the passage of time. He collaborated on recordings of Afro-pop with an ensemble from
Mali and on an album of spirituals, hymns and folksongs with
Charlie Haden called Steal Away (1995).
Among his later recordings are For My Father (2005), with bassist
George Mraz and drummer
Dennis Mackrel, a solo piano recording issued in Japan under the title Round Midnight (2006), and as a side man on
Joe Lovano's Joyous Encounter (2005). Jones made his debut on Lineage Records, recording with
Frank Wess and with the guitarist Eddie Diehl, but also appeared on West of 5th (2006) with Jimmy Cobb and
Christian McBride on
Chesky Records. He also accompanied
Diana Krall for "Dream a Little Dream of Me" on the album compilation, We all Love Ella (Verve 2007). He is one of the musicians who test and talk about the piano in the documentary Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037, released in November 2007.
Hank Jones lived in
Cresskill, NJ, upstate New York and in Manhattan. He died at a
Calvary Hospital Hospice in
The Bronx, New York, on May 16, 2010, survived by his wife Theodosia.[15]
^According to Arnold Jay Smith (in "The Impeccable Hank Jones", Down Beat, July 31, 1976), Jones was branded "the impeccable one" by WRVR-FM jazz historian Ed Beach.