Together with his brother Cliff, Jones taught himself to play the
saxophone, before the two of them founded a
dance band in 1930. Named "Campus Club Dance Band" it was
semi-professional and when it was dissolved in 1935, Jones tried to establish himself as a professional musician, becoming a member of a combo led by
trumpeter Johnny Claes, with musicians who played in the style of
Coleman Hawkins. In 1942 and 1943, Jones worked for the
BBC radio programme
Radio Rhythm Club; and in 1942, together with authors
Albert McCarthy and
Charles Fox, he founded the magazine
Jazz Music, which became
meritorious as it set out "to reassert the pioneering role of the
African-American, to emphasise the music’s social dimensions, and to attack the glossy
commercialism of big-band swing". Starting in 1944, Jones had a full-time job writing features for the British weekly music magazine
Melody Maker in the column "Collectors’ Corner". In the years following he gained recognition as a proven expert on
New Orleans Jazz,
swing, and
mainstream jazz. and the
Spirits of Rhythm. Jones was the first jazz musician to become a professional journalist. Although he dealt exclusively with jazz in his publications, Jones was married to Betty Salberg and had one son. == Publications ==