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Jill
Jones - Surviving and Succeeding in the Music Biz
By Steven Fullwood
Jill Jones possesses one of those rare voices that
people would kill to have—lithe and gentle, edgy and sweeping. Equal parts
singer and songwriter, she is the ultimate survivor with a long and productive
history in the music industry. And her
latest project—the sumptuous TWO, with musician Chris Bruce—demonstrates her
limitless talent on a new collection of songs that are stunningly original,
graced with hope and despair, faith and self-discovery.
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“It’s the biggest romance of my
life,” smiled Jones, when asked about why she sings, "but I've actually
thought about it. Because I have a love/hate for singing, it’s the one love affair of my life that is still unattainable.
It’s like Audrey Hepburn and Spencer Tracy,” she said gesturing with her hands.
"It's weird, it's like I have to."
Today Jones sports a stylish trench coat and fly platform shoes, both of which help to ward of the early afternoon
drizzle and simultaneously lift her delicate frame as she walked into the East
Village café to meet me. Her brown hair is gently pushed back behind her ears,
and her expressive pale green eyes give off the distinct impression that
nothing gets past this woman. She leans forward and discusses her humble
beginnings in the business—singing background for the diminutive (sized)
powerhouse vocalist, the legendary Teena Marie.
“She [Teena] was very instrumental in pushing me to sing (Jones' mother managed
Marie). I was only fourteen and had a lot of chutzpah, so I thought I'm not
going to let her overshadow me,” Jones recalled, laughing. “I was very
competitive then, and I didn’t want her to look bad for hiring me, and the
experience helped me to become a hard worker.”
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Apparently hard work pays off. Jones soon met another major talent—Prince—and thus began a
long musical (and platonic) association with the musician. She sang co-lead on
the single “1999” (she’s the blonde in the video), and contributed vocals to a
number of Prince-produced projects, including singing behind a curtain for the
scantly clad, Vanity 6. In 1987, Jones released her eponymous debut on Paisley
Park records, which established her solo career. Although the album is now out
of print, it is considered a collectors’ item.
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While it has been several years since Jones recorded under her own name, she speaks
thoughtfully about the profound differences in her first solo album and her
latest project TWO.
“Back in the Prince days I was more into poetry and writing stories. That’s how he and I collaborated,” Jones
emphasized. “Now, my concepts of things are more realistic, and that’s based
upon experience, not like when you are a teenager and fantasizing.”
So will listeners be privy to a glimpse into the soul of Jill Jones on this new project?
“I feel more revealing and sincere,” she said, “I feel freer and my confidence has grown. I’ve always been pretty
descriptive, but now it’s been pretty real to the core; now it’s about the
music.” M
September 2001
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