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(1911-1985)
Alabama-born drummer Jo Jones worked as a carnival tap dancer before receiving his first big break with Walter Page's Blue Devils. Still in his early twenties, he landed a long-running position with the Count Basie Orchestra in 1933, and was a crucial cog in that immortal band’s trademark hard-swinging performances and recordings. His influential style, which emphasized the hi-hat as the pulse rather than the bass drum, has been adopted by drummers in jazz idioms ever since, from bebop to the avant-garde. After leaving the Basie fold in 1948, Jones continued to appear with Basie in small groups and in the Jazz at the Philharmonic series. Other artists who featured Jones on their recordings included Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Lester Young and Billie Holiday.
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