BIOGRAPHY AND DISCOGRAPHY

Rock’s first female artist, a tragically underrated and overlooked singer who despite being very highly regarded in professional circles throughout her career, somehow failed to connect on a broad basis with audiences, never landing a hit and fading into obscurity in the years since.

Like some other early rock acts Jones was veteran performer already who’d cut sides with jazz legends like trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonists Don Byas and Lester Young, but hadn’t scored commercially and often found her strongest attributes as a singer reined in by conforming to the pre-existing standards fit for the styles that the musicians were adhering to.

When she moved into rock ‘n’ roll at its very outset in 1947 her natural talents were given a more welcoming platform and she released a handful of classic sides before a fall from stage in 1951 caused by an inexplicable partial paralysis of her legs left her requiring crutches from then on. With her focus now on regaining her ability to walk her career came to an end, something that with little commercial success to show for her work and facing a future in a style that was skewing ever younger may have been inevitable before long anyway. Though her legs never fully regained their full usage, she eventually made it back to doing some live performances in later years but her recording career was long since over, taking with her one of the greatest and most expressive voices the idiom had seen.

Despite her groundbreaking role in rock history Jones was little remembered when she passed away in 1989 at the age of 74.

 
 
ALBENNIE JONES DISCOGRAPHY (Reviews To Date On Spontaneous Lunacy):
 

THE RAIN IS FALLING
(Decca 48048; September, 1947)
Rock’s first torch ballad set the bar about as high as it gets, daring anyone to follow in that style to try and match this, let alone try and surpass it. (9)

PAPA TREE TOP BLUES
(Decca 48048; September, 1947)
Grabs you immediately, upping the tempo and using more overt charms to work you over… makes quite an impression… (8)

GIVE IT UP DADDY BLUES
(Decca 48069; January, 1948)
Conceivably a far more commercial record than her previous outing… she is presented as a cat in heat and the hope seems to be that the male response will be carnal rather than cerebral and that will more than suffice. (6)

I HAVE A WAY OF LOVIN’
(Decca 48069; January, 1948)
On paper it seems like a good idea… with Jones sexual desires being flaunted to get what she wants, but it’s poorly written and played and no amount of vocal talent can fully salvage it. (4)

LOVE IS SUCH A MYSTERY
(Decca 48095; January, 1949)
The confusion and vagaries of love as expressed by someone who sounds as if she’s experienced all of its ups and downs which have left her dazed but still standing. (6)

HEY LITTLE BOY
(Decca 48095; January, 1949)
Not all it could be despite some nice touches as Jones tries to steer clear of rehashing her earlier work, undercutting the songs lyrics to a degree and leaving us slightly unfulfilled. (6)

HOLE IN THE WALL
(Decca 48100; March, 1949)
The perfect distillation of everything rock has been to this point and all it promises to be in the future, a vibrant attitude unleashed on the world with Jones in total control of the proceedings making her claim for a sliver of immortality. ★ 10 ★

SONG MAN
(Decca 48100; March, 1949)
Songs about the internal emotional struggles over the ambiguities of love Jones has mastered in the past but on this nothing connects, from the dirge-like pace to her intermittent focus, resulting in a swing and a miss on her stab for greater artistic respect. (3)