BIOGRAPHY
Confidence and talent have taken De’Sean Jones far in the last decade and a half, a long road that started with a casual bet between De’Sean and his father.
Just 12 years old at the time, and having only dabbled in music up to that point, De’Sean heard the music of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. Intrigued, but not intimidated, his reaction was “I can do that.”
To his surprise, the elder Jones called his bluff by purchasing a saxophone and gave the young man six months to prove himself. The rest is Detroit music history, still in the making.
A prodigy on tenor sax, Jones participated in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's civic jazz program, attended the Detroit School for the Fine and Performing Arts and the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory. He also studied under renowned jazz bassist Rodney Whitaker both through the DSO and Michigan State University.
His mentors entered his life early, leading him into the folds of Detroit’s weighty jazz scene at the age of 15. As a teenager Jones played with such notables as the late-great Gerald Wilson, Donald Walden and Lawrence Williams. But it was Detroit jazz icon, Marcus Belgrave that left the deepest imprint on his musical soul.
“Marcus is the reason I became a musician,” De’Sean says of the late- great trumpet player. Belgrave became a second father to De’Sean; his musical father. He brought him into the world of jazz that would be his home, his familiar place, into adulthood, even as he ventured out into other areas of musical experimentation. The two even engaged in long, sometimes harsh conversations that were rarely about music, but rather about life.
“He was much more than a force from the bandstand,” says De’Sean. “He was my… read more
BIOGRAPHY
Confidence and talent have taken De’Sean Jones far in the last decade and a half, a long road that started with a casual bet between De’Sean and his father.
Just 12 years old at the time, and having only dabbled in music up to that point, De’Sean heard the music of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. Intrigued, but not intimidated, his reaction was “I can do that.”
To his surprise, the elder Jones called his bluff by purchasing a saxophone and gave the young man six months to prove himself. The rest is Detroit music history, still in the making.
A prodigy on tenor sax, Jones participated in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's civic jazz program, attended the Detroit School for the Fine and Performing Arts and the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory. He also studied under renowned jazz bassist Rodney Whitaker both through the DSO and Michigan State University.
His mentors entered his life early, leading him into the folds of Detroit’s weighty jazz scene at the age of 15. As a teenager Jones played with such notables as the late-great Gerald Wilson, Donald Walden and Lawrence Williams. But it was Detroit jazz icon, Marcus Belgrave that left the deepest imprint on his musical soul.
“Marcus is the reason I became a musician,” De’Sean says of the late- great trumpet player. Belgrave became a second father to De’Sean; his musical father. He brought him into the world of jazz that would be his home, his familiar place, into adulthood, even as he ventured out into other areas of musical experimentation. The two even engaged in long, sometimes harsh conversations that were rarely about music, but rather about life.
“He was much more than a force from the bandstand,” says De’Sean. “He was my… read more