Broadway Jones

Broadway Jones (left) in a 1928 press photo for Shuffle Along Jr. Henry A. "Broadway" Jones (April 11, 1888 – November 14, 1948), was an American singer, musical theatre actor, drummer, band leader, comedian, and nightclub owner. As a vocalist he was known for his performances of jazz music and spirituals. He had a career as a singer, actor, and comedian in vaudeville, night clubs, and on Broadway during the first half of the twentieth century.

A native of Florida, Jones began his career as a jazz drummer and singer in Jacksonville where he was active as early as 1912. By 1915 he was working as a band leader in New York City. He became a well-known musical figure during the Harlem Renaissance where he operated a jazz nightclub in the 1920s. He was a popular performer in Palm Beach, Florida, where he sang regularly from 1915 into the late 1920s, including annual engagements at the Royal Poinciana Hotel. A baritone with a rich, large voice, the song "Ol' Man River" from Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern's Show Boat (1927) was originally created with him as the intended vocalist. He was offered the role of Joe in the original cast of the musical but declined the part.

Jones was a performing partner of Eubie Blake during World War I, and again during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The pair performed together in jazz clubs, hotels, theaters, and other venues, including performing in numerous musical revues in vaudeville and on tour. Together the pair created the vaudeville revue Shuffle Along Jr. (1928), a distilled version of Blake and Sissle's landmark 1921 musical Shuffle Along. They also performed in the Broadway musical Blackbirds of 1930.

Alone, Jones starred in James P. Johnson's short-lived Broadway musical Sugar Hill (1931). In the mid-1930s he performed at the Cotton Club, on Broadway, and on tour in the Cotton Club revues created by Cab Calloway. From 1938 to 1940 he was a member of Clarence Tisdale's Tisdale Trio, and afterward performed in his own group, the Broadway Jones Trio, whose membership also included vocalist Opal Cooper. At the very end of his career he worked in partnership with the jazz pianist Earres Prince. Having never retired, he died while traveling with Prince on tour in 1948 at the age of 60.

Early life and career The son of Harry J. Jones and Mary Jones (née Mix),

In January 1930 the Jones and Blake act was engaged once again at the Lafayette Theatre to perform a fifteen-minute comedy and music sketch in the musical revue Birth of Syncopation. It was directed by Lawrence Deas who had choreographed the original Broadway production of Shuffle Along. They performed together as a duo in several other vaudeville revues in 1930, one of which was Shaky Feet. They had particular success in a 1930 revue produced by Will Morrissey, but a decision to no longer allow racially mixed casts in the Orpheum Circuit put an end to further opportunities of this kind.

Jones and Blake rebounded by joining the Broadway cast of the 1930 version of Lew Leslie's Blackbirds musical revue series. Jones portrayed the stereotype Sambo character in the production, and his featured solo in this work was the spiritual "Roll, Jordan, Roll" which he performed with a choir led by Cecil Mack. Without Blake, Jones returned to Broadway in December 1931 as Gyp Penrose in James P. Johnson's short lived musical Sugar Hill. His songs in that musical included "Hanging Around Yo’ Door" and "Hot Harlem".

In 1931 Jones and Blake were once again performing in Fanchon and Marco's musical revue. Around this time Jones formed a band in which Blake was the pianist; the group toured through 1932 and possibly into 1933. Financial pressures of the Great Depression led Jones to disband the group. The duo later reunited briefly in the mid 1930s for concerts of "more refined" music which they performed with the Monarch Symphonic Band; an orchestra based in Harlem.

Later life and career

In 1936 Jones was engaged at the Cotton Club as a performer in Will Vodery and Cab Calloway's revue Cotton Club Parade. Just prior to this engagement he had toured nationally in Calloway's Cotton Club revue. The 1936 Cotton Club Parade was the most lavish Cotton Club revue during its thirteen year history, and included a run on Broadway. Its cast was led by Calloway and Bill Robinson.

Jones became a member of Clarence Tisdale's Tisdale Trio during its final years, performing with that group as early as 1938. It was active as late as 1940 with Tisdale, Jones, and the pianist Carroll Boyd as the group's final lineup. In 1942 and 1943 he was performing in night clubs in New York with his group, the Broadway Jones Trio. The trio consisted of Jones, fellow singer Opal Cooper, and pianist Freddie Brown who also sang in addition to playing the keyboard.

Jones died in Weatherly, Pennsylvania, on November 14, 1948, at the age of 60. His death from a heart attack occurred aboard a train which had just left Hazleton, Pennsylvania, bound for New York City. He was traveling with his current music collaborator, the jazz pianist Earres Prince, at that time; with the pair having just completed a week of performance at Chic Sacco's in Hazleton.