Jonah Jones began his musical career at an early age, playing French horn in local orchestras, before quickly switching to trumpet. By the age of 12, he was playing alongside young trombonist Dicky Wells in his school orchestra. Later, not yet 20, he embarked, like many musicians of the time, on the riverboats up the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. He then joined the great band of conductor and pianist Horace Henderson, alongside the young trumpeter Roy Eldridge. With his reputation already well established, he was recruited by bandleader and saxophonist Jimmie Lunceford, then by violinist Stuff Smith. During the '30s, the famous McKinney's Cotton Pickers called on Jonah Jones for the last year of their activity, and after the band disbanded, he returned to Stuff Smith. The band, based at New York's Onyx Club, enjoyed great success in all the city's clubs. This happy experience drew the attention of the famous leader-singer-dancer Cab Calloway, with whom he remained for over ten years from the early '40s onwards. As the cycle of big bands drew to a close, many of the former leaders set up small bands, and Jonah Jones joined pianist Earl Hines. In the mid-50s, he went to Paris, where he performed as a soloist at the Salon du Jazz. Back in the States, he set up his first quartet and frequented the New York club The Embers
