The entire world just recently lost probably the greatest entertainer of all-time. Yes! Prince in my opinion and many others agree that the fallen musical genius was ahead of his time and a visionary of what real music embodied. Although he was a musical genius who had a great voice, stage presence, and the ability to play a plethora of instruments, there are by far more other musicians who display erudition. When I think of such prodigious artists, I consider a one Curt Jones( formerly of the funk band Slave, Aurra, and Déjà).
Upon conversing with Curt just a few weeks ago, I couldn’ t have imagined the guy that I grew up watching perform with other bandmates was really an immense break-out star in his own right. See, I had never seen Curt perform as a solo artist thus not knowing just how inordinate his own musical talents were. We’ re talking about a man that plays just as many if not more instruments as the late Prince and has a voice that is as pitch perfect as it was in the 70s & 80’ s when I discovered him in bands, Aurra and Déjà. To not include him in the class of musical geniuses would be unjust as he comes from a background of great performers and was in the company of legends like, Earl“ Fatha” Hines( a popular early 20 th century jazz pianist and bandleader).
Curt Jones III was born in Linden, New Jersey to George Irving Jones, a contractor / brickmason and Emma Janice Jones from a small town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has one sister, Lisa Jones who is younger. Curt grew up in the 60’ s thus remembering the Beatle’ s“ British Invasion” and listened to James Brown, Sam Cooke, Sly and the Family Stone, and others. He came from a very close knit family. He remembers gathering money with his friends and taking the train to New York City getting off at Penn Station to go to Madison Square Garden.
They would purchase tickets for orchestra seats for $ 7.50 to see The Jackson 5 every year. Young Curt recalls one of their most memorable shows where the band that opened up for the iconic group was so good he and his buddy and future bandmate thought. Moreover, the saxophone player in this group put down his instrument, came to the front, and started singing a rendition of“ Me and Mrs. Jones”( a Grammy award winning song sung by the late Billy Paul). Curt revealed the group was the legendary The Commodores and that singer was the iconic award winning singer / songwriter Lionel Richie. They had just gotten signed to Motown. Curt really loved music from the time he was in
elementary school singing around the house matching tones well. As he got older, the inspiring singer joined the glee club and choir in school. He took private lessons to play different instruments from a musical instructor at his elementary school named Mr. Wolf. Curt didn’ t hold back as he learned to play instrument after instrument. He knew he had a talent for being a serious musician as it was in his blood. His maternal grandfather had a big band in Western Pennsylvania called The Davenport Blue Ribbon Band. His grandfather played every instrument as the legendary pianist and bandleader, Earl“ Fatha” Hines joined the band. He still holds fond memories and pictures of the influential jazz musician.
His mother’ s sisters also had a group called The Davenport Sisters who sang with Motown in the early days of the legendary record label. They were signed to a subsidiary label of Motown being managed by Harvey Fuqua. He watched his aunts rehearse down in the basement. When Curt was seven, he recalls asking his father if Santa Claus would be interested in delivering him an electric guitar. Sure enough when he awoke that Christmas morning, there was an electric guitar sitting under the tree and remembers being very grateful.
Upon receiving it, he took over a year worth of lessons. This is the first instrument he learned to play and( is main instrument that he plays to this day). Still a kid, at the end of the day the young prodigy grew tired of taking lessons and playing guitar to join his friends in normal child activities like, the Cub Scouts. At first his father was not pleased with the idea as knew his son could make a living off playing guitar but his mother convinced his father to give him a break. By the time Curt got to junior high school, he continue to pursue his musical journey by playing in stage bands and the orchestra. This encouraged the talented teen to pick back up the electric guitar and start playing it never putting it down ever again. Curt began forming bands in
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