RUFUS JONES IS AN american GUITARIST, SINGER/SONGWRITER, PRODUCER, AND BAND LEADEr.

Rufus Elmer Jones, Jr., best known as Rufus, Jr., is an Americana guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer from Memphis who studied in New England and best known for combining the Blues/Soul/Folk influences of B.B King/Al Green/James Taylor. After a career on Wall Street and after the death of his father, Rufus, Sr., Jones released his first self-produced 20-track album, Articles Blues (December 2020), a personal and historic narrative that captures the 2020 pandemic year in songs that were inspired by the words of journalists in their newspaper articles and blogs. Jones, like Prince implored, owns, wrote, produced and recorded all the instruments and vocals and distributed and shared the album globally on all major streaming services via LANDR.

Jones arrived in New York City a day after Thanksgiving on Friday, November 29, 1991 on an Amtrak train with two guitars, an amp, and $2,000 given to him by his father from his hometown Memphis, Tennessee. Seven months earlier, Rufus laid in an ambulance after a knife stab wound landed one inch from his heart as a result of confronting a man with a knife who had threatened a clerk at a cash register inside of his family’s business, Jones Big Star, located at the corner of College and McLemore across the street from the old Stax Recording Studios, also known as Soulsvilles U.S.A. After regaining consciousness in the back of the ambulance still in the grocery store’s parking lot, he did two things. First, he took a deep breath to see if he was still alive. Rufus did not die that day. Next, he lifted his left hand that had been cut in the palm and moved his fingers to see if he could again play the guitar. At that moment, he said to himself, “This is not right for me. There must be a better way, a better place, a better situation.” Rufus, Jr., as he was called, told his grandfather who had started the business in 1938 that the family should sell the business because they could not compete against highly financed chain stores. Rufus, Jr. then said, “I want to go to New York and do music. Play the blues.” Rufus, Jr. had been moonlighting as a guitarist in RCA Records Joyce Cobb’s band over on Beale Street. His grandfather, laying in his bed due to complications from cancer, said to Rufus, Jr, “Is that what you really want to do?” Rufus, Jr. relied, “Yes, sir.” “Then play the guitar like B.B. King!” said his grandfather, S.L. Jones. At that moment, at the end of Summer 1991, Rufus, Jr. knew that his grandfather understood what Rufus, Jr. had to do. Two weeks after Rufus arrived in New York City, he returned to Memphis. He grandfather had died and was buried on Rufus, Jr.’s birthday. Rufus (born December 14, 1963) has studied voice with Genevieve Kalled, guitar with fellow Memphian Calvin Newborn as a youth and New York’s Freddie Bryant as an adult, and songwriting at The New School with Wendy Griffiths; developed and taught “A History of The Blues” and “Development of a Blues Composition” for the NYU at Dalton Program; signed up for, performed in and eventually led blues jams in the 1990s at NYC blues clubs or “dives.” He recorded his first original songs “I’m From Memphis, Baby,” “You Came Along At the Right Time” and “Voices Have No Color” in 1994-1995 with producer, singer, and songwriter Vaneese Thomas, the daughter of the legendary Memphian Rufus Thomas in her New York studio, along with “best friend from grade school,” co-producer Marc Willis, a Berklee College of Music graduate. Influenced by the blues and soul culture of Memphis and New England artists such as James Taylor and global bands like The Beatles during his boarding school days at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and college years at Harvard University, Rufus’ talents as a guitarist, songwriter, and singer have made him a sought after solo performer by locals, friends and family for professional, educational and corporate events. To give a certain purity to a solo style, Rufus prefers a sound marked by minimal effects on his gear, including a consistent tonal balance with his state-of-the-art Bose L1 Model 1S PA system with B1 bass and ToneMatch audio engine; incandescent live vocals with his Shure BETA 87A SLX2 wireless microphone; and distinctive playing funky finger-picking style, rhythmic and harmonic concepts, and musicianship on his Fender Stratocaster, Gretsch Synchromatic Cutaway vintage-style acoustic-electric arched spruce top with F Holes named “Grace,” and Fender Precision Bass guitars. By day, Rufus is a “Wall Street” trader, and by night he continues to moonlight as a musician and songwriter. In Summer 2016, Rufus initiated a multi-year monthly performance solo residency, “Soul, Blues & Originals, Too,” at the Light Horse Tavern in Jersey City, NJ . Rufus continues to perform bi-weekly on alternate Wednesdays at the Light Horse Tavern, while taking periodic gigs and private performances in and around the New Jersey-New York-Massachusetts area. In January 2019, Rufus was invited to establish a year-long residency at NumberTen in Great Barrington, MA, where he presents new original songs, refines his guitar picking and vocal stylings, and shares himself with “Soul, Blues & Originals, Too” every 4th Saturday each month. Rufus performs an average of 30 shows and 90 sets each year and continues to write and record original songs for his milestone project and fantasy, “100 Songs in 100 Days,” a multi-media global education, art, and literature tour to record 100 originals over 100 days in Rufus’ favorite famous sound recording studios with celebrity and local musicians and with fans inside the studios with real-time access to the songwriting, music recording, and production and mastering process. Since 1994, when he put a “period” on his first song, Rufus has written and recorded or uploaded from cassettes nearly 70 original songs on his way to 100 on Apple’s GarageBand for Mac. Rufus has a vision that includes working with Vaneese Thomas and Marc Willis and people such as Rob Mathes, James Taylor, Sting, David Porter, Al Green, Booker T., Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, Gladys Knight, Bonnie Raitt, Janet Jackson, Diana Ross, Carole King, Mary J. Blige and Ekpe and their friends to record 5 songs in 4 hours similar to Chet Atkins in legendary studios around the world, including RCA Studio B, Abbey Road Studio One, Stax, Sun, Motown, Capitol, Electric Lady, Power Station, Muscle Shoals, Columbia, Dungeon, Trident, Headley, Black Ark, and Music Lair. Rufus will work and document in an “audiophile manner” just as Rob Mathes describes in his liner notes for his album Flesh and Spirit with “musicians playing together at the same time” to capture a true sound that is immediate, inspiring, “real and unique.” Rufus shares his autobiographical stories and songs based on historical events through a repertoire of originals, blues, soul and folk songs in a way that resonates with people in Memphis, New England, New York/New Jersey, Chicago, Massachusetts and beyond. After graduating from Phillips Academy, Rufus attended Harvard University and holds an MBA in finance from the University of Tennessee. Rufus and his wife co-founded the James Weldon Johnson Literary Foundation in Great Barrington. Rufus lives and works in New York with his wife Jill and their cherished son.

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