One of Australia’s most respected jazz musicians, Vince Jones has seen it all: song requests from the voice actor of Kermit The Frog and Miss Piggy, playing on-stage with Herbie Hancock, and eventually creating an album out of solar power.
Vince is set to play the Brisbane Festival’s Jazz On Sunday program, adding to the 5,000 or so gigs already under his belt. As he reflected on his esteemed career over the past 40 years, he spoke highly of the pure delight it has been to play music his whole life. “I really enjoy playing music ... there’s no [other] option,” he says.
“I’m really tired... I’ve done over 5,000 gigs which means I’ve lived in a hotel room nine years straight, countless times in airports. But for the music it’s really enjoyable, I love singing.”
The esteemed musician has had an illustrious career and has noticed the change in the music industry during this time. “I’ve been a full time musician for 35 years now,” he says. “[The music industry] is changing though. The record industry moves towards music that is making money, so they’re not really interested in jazz. I’ve maintained my independence [from record companies] throughout my whole career. I’ve never sold my music to a record company and have never worked for one. But I’ve released through them.
“I ended up doing five/six albums with EMI. I would make the record and give it to them so they had no control over it. If it sells, that’s all they want. But the minute the music doesn’t sell, the public changes, the record company drops you and grabs something else. They’re not really interested in music, they’re interested in dollars. Not all, but most. I’ve kept my independence so I can do what I do.”
Vince says it’s hard to make “good” music and it’s extremely hard for young musicians to build a career and “make it” in today’s music industry. “I can get a good audience to almost every gig I do, but for a lot of the younger ones it’s quite hard,” he says. “They’ll struggle, but you just keep doing it for the love of it. When you think about it, art is really difficult to make. Even though you’re an artist, you can only sometimes make it. There’s so much ‘false art’ around.
“If you really want to make art, you spend your life studying and researching … it’s perpetual study. It’s a birth to death decision one makes to be a jazz musician. We do it till we drop. I wouldn’t change it for anything ... You dedicate your life to music for the love of it and for the hope that you’ll make something really interesting.”
The music veteran was amazed at how well received jazz is in Europe and America. “The appreciation is just incredible,” he says. “The public just want more jazz. They understand the rudiments of it and therefore they get addicted to it. I love Australia and Australian people, but unfortunately one of the flaws in the Australian cultural society are there’s not enough harmonically challenging or interesting music like jazz. It has really suffered.
“Even though there is jazz on the radio [in Australia], there’s still not enough. It needs to be more mainstream. There are some very exciting brilliant musicians out there.”
Vince has always considered making an album out of solar power, and still believes it’s a possibility. “I would love to do it,” he says. “It can be done. If we need it, I would use bio-diesel to back it up. [I would do it] to make my carbon footprint smaller. A lot of electricity goes into making records — it would be great if we could do it from the sun. It’s possible.”
Written by Laura Kirkwood
Vince Jones Tour Dates
21st September – Jazz On Sunday (Brisbane)18th October – Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (Woolongong)
24th October – Bennetts Lane (Melbourne)
25th October – Bennetts Lane (Melbourne)
