Willie Jones

The Chicago pianist is the youngest in a triumvirate of jazz musicians named Willie Jones, Willie Jones Jr., and Willie Jones III, who are actually not related to each other. His 1920 birthday in the heart of the Mississippi Delta makes the pianist the "senior" of the bunch, a bit less than a decade older than the drummer who performed with the likes of Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. The overlapping aspect of the bandleaders these players named Willie Jones worked with is part of the overall haze. Pianist Jones, although keeping his professional activities confined to Chi...