Monday 25 April 2016

Wizz Jones born 25 April 1939

 
Raymond Ronald Jones (born 25 April 1939, Thornton Heath, Croydon, Surrey) better-known as Wizz Jones is an English acoustic guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been performing since the late 1950s and recording from 1965 to the present. He has worked with many of the notable guitarists of the English folk music revival, such as John Renbourn and Bert Jansch.
 
Jones became infatuated with the bohemian image of Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac and grew his hair long. His mother had started calling him Wizzy after the Beano comic strip character "Wizzy the Wuz" because at the age of nine Raymond was a budding musician. The nickname stuck throughout his school years and when he formed his first band, "The Wranglers", in 1957 the name became permanent. Bert Jansch later said, "I think he's the most underrated guitarist ever." In the early 1960s he went busking in Paris, France, and there mixed in an artistic circle that included Rod Stewart, Alex Campbell, Clive Palmer (Incredible String Band) and Ralph McTell. After a couple of years travelling throughout Europe and North Africa he returned to England and married his longtime girlfriend Sandy to raise a family.
 
In 1965, his only single was released: Bob Dylan's "Ballad of Hollis Brown". By this time the skiffle boom was over but one of the stars of that movement, Chas McDevitt, used Jones' guitar-playing on five albums in 1965 and 1966. Another musician on those sessions was the bluegrass banjo-player, Pete Stanley. In 1966, Jones and Stanley released an album, Sixteen Tons of Bluegrass, but this partnership broke down in 1967, as Jones then turned solo.


           Here's " "When I Leave Berlin" from above album .

                            
                          
Lazy Farmer is the 1975 album by British folk rock group Lazy Farmer. This short-lived group consisted of pioneer British Folk musician Wizz Jones, his wife Sandy Jones, John Bidwell and Jake Walton.

Jones started to become a singer-songwriter. His first solo album was Wizz Jones in 1969. Up to 1988, ten solo albums followed and he played on Ralph McTell's single "Easy" in 1974. Steve Tilston was also guided by Jones, through the early stages of his career. Jones was once described as having 'a right hand worthy of Broonzy', referring to the Blues Guitarist Big Bill Broonzy. Most of his recordings from this period are long out of print. 

A brief excursion as a member of the traditional folk band Lazy Farmer in 1975 produced an album that was reissued in 2006. Jones has always maintained a high level of popularity in Germany, since the mid–1970s, and he stills tours mainland Europe every year. The early 1990s were a quiet period. He almost disappeared from public view.
 
When in the mid-1990s he appeared on the Bert Jansch television documentary Acoustic Routes, there was renewed interest in his work. In 2001, he led John Renbourn and other members of Pentangle on the album Lucky The Man. In 2007, The Legendary Me and When I Leave Berlin were reissued on CD by the Sunbeam record label.
 
On 30 May 2012, Bruce Springsteen opened the sold-out Wrecking Ball concert at Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, with Jones's song, "When I Leave Berlin".

 
In 2015, Jones toured with John Renbourn, playing a mixture of solo and duo material, before Renbourn died in March that year. (Info Wikipedia)
 

3 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “Wizz Jones – Lazy farmer (1975) go here;

http://www25.zippyshare.com/v/D3R5S560/file.html

1."Lazy Farmer" (Traditional)
2."Standing Down in New York Town" (Ralph McTell)
3."Railroad Boy" (Traditional)
4."Soldier's Joy/Arkansas Traveller" (Traditional/Sanford Faulkner)
5."Turtle Dove" (Traditional)
6."John Lover's Gone" (Traditional)
7."Johnson Boys" (Traditional)
8."Love Song" (Derroll Adams)
9."The Cuckoo" (Clarence Ashley/Hobart Smith)
10."Sally in the Garden/Liberty" (Traditional)
11."Gypsy Davey" (Traditional/Woody Guthrie)
12."When I Leave Berlin" (Wizz Jones)

A big thank you Ezhevika Fields blog for original post & anonymous for re-up link.

For “Wizz Jones – Soloflight (1978) (Includes recordings from 1970-74) go here:

http://www75.zippyshare.com/v/PRBEKxxS/file.html

a1. National Seven
a2. Pastures of Plenty
a3. Dallas Blues
a4. Sam Stone
a5. Weeping Willow Blues
a6. Shake, Shake Mama

b1. Second-hand Mini-me
b2. Sally Free and Easy
b3. Can't Keep from crying
b4. Angie
b5. Spoonful
b6. National Seven (long version)

A big thank you to Time has Told me blog for active link.

Andrew said...

These are dead, would you kindly re-up?

If you entertain requests i would love to read a post on Nic Jones.

Thanks, great site,

boppinbob said...

Hello Andrew, Here's the new link for both albums.

https://www.upload.ee/files/13110985/Wizz_Jones.rar.html

You'll be pleased to hear that Nic Jones will be covered on his birthday, but you'll have a bit of a wait as its 9th January. I have added him to my blog birthday diary and hopefully I should have some recorded material by then. Regards, Bob.