Music
Thad Jones
1923–1986 · jazz trumpeter, cornetist, composer, bandleader
Pontiac-born trumpeter and composer who played in the house band of Detroit's Blue Bird Inn before joining Count Basie and co-founding the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra.
- Born
Pontiac, Michigan- Died
Copenhagen, Denmark
aged 63- Birth name
- Thaddeus Joseph Jones
- Detroit years
- 1923–1954
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Jones was born in Pontiac into a musical family of ten; his older brother Hank became a celebrated pianist and his younger brother Elvin a groundbreaking drummer. He took up the trumpet as a boy and, after Army service during World War II, returned to the Detroit area's thriving jazz scene. In the early 1950s he played in the house band at the Blue Bird Inn on Tireman Avenue, the city's key bebop room, alongside Elvin, saxophonist Billy Mitchell and pianist Barry Harris; his tune "5021" is named after the club's street number. In May 1954 he joined the Count Basie Orchestra as soloist and arranger. In New York he co-founded the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, which began its long Monday-night residency at the Village Vanguard in 1966. He moved to Copenhagen in 1979 to lead the Danish Radio Big Band and died there in 1986.
Highlights
- Played in the Blue Bird Inn house band in Detroit in the early 1950s
- Composition "5021" honors the Blue Bird Inn's Tireman Avenue address
- Soloist and arranger with Count Basie, 1954–1963
- Co-founded the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra (1965)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · early 1950s
Blue Bird Inn
Closed
West-side bar that became Detroit's leading bebop room by the late 1940s. He played in the house band here with Billy Mitchell, Elvin Jones and Barry Harris. The Detroit Sound Conservancy bought the building in 2018; it became a local historic district in 2020 and is being restored as a venue and heritage center.