John Jones Music

Idyllwild on Mount San Jacinto was just what the doctor ordered for Memorial Day weekend!

The Hill (mountain), the clean air, the gigantic trees, and Strawberry Creek, made it hard to leave!

Strawberry Creek, Idyllwild, Cal.

Los Angeles has a Jacaranda season.

This spring they are blooming late and out of sync in our area. It’s probably due to the cooler weather we’ve been having.

May 24, 2011 - Los Angeles California

Thank You to all who pledged on my behalf for the 2011 SCGA Foundation Golf Marathon. The event, held on May 21 at the Arcadia 18 hole par three course, raised $38,000.

Jeff, Mark and John, starting the 100 hole Marathon for the SCGA Foundation

Jack Richardson, CM, has left the studio for the final time. After decades of being Canada’s father of record producing, “Sir” Jack passed away last week in London, Ontario at the young age of 81.

In his career Jack produced many of the Guess Who hits including These Eyes and American Woman. In the mid 1960’s he was one of the founders of Nimbus 9, a mutli-media production company that had the best recording studio in Toronto in Yorkville in the early 1970’s. Bob Ezrin started his career working for Jack at Nimbus 9. Ezrin brought in Alice Cooper, and they produced the Love it to Death album together, featuring the hits I’m Eighteen and the Ballad of Dwight Fry. Jack also produced Night Moves for Bob Seger and countless other International and Canadian acts throughout his five decade career. See Jack Richardson on Wiki.

I spent time at Nimbus when I was growing up, and I recorded with Jack on a couple of forgotten projects in the late 1970’s. Later, when Nimbus was closing down (around 1980?), Dee Long and I bought Ezrin’s favourite EMT Plate and some microphones and baffles for ESP, our studio in Buttonville. Bob pulled off the side cover so he could make sure it had his file marks on the metal sheet! Awesome!

Alice Cooper’s DaDa was recorded at ESP, which of course meant that Vince used the very same EMT reverb in two very different studios.

In reading about Jack’s career I couldn’t help but notice that he never won a Juno Award for Producing. Yes I know they have renamed the Producer Award in his honor, but, how could he have not won ten of them? That’s Canada for you.

Alice Cooper at Nimbus with Jack Richardson in the 70s

I went to the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) convention at the Wilshire Grand in downtown Los Angeles last week. ARSC is a nonprofit “dedicated to the preservation and study of sound recordings”.

I really enjoyed Preserving and Protecting the Frank Zappa Archives with Joe Travers and Gail Zappa of the Zappa Family Trust. Joe and Gail talked about Frank’s massive creative output, and their work in saving everything for future generations.

Joe is the official Vault Meister of the archives. See him in this video, talking about his work.

Joe Travers, John Jones and Gail Zappa at ARSC Los Angeles

Nothing could be finer than to be in California in the springtime.

Two old friends from AIR Studios on Oxford Street, London, find themselves having a pleasant afternoon at Rancho Park, in the Cheviot Hills of West Los Angeles, 20 years later. Who would have thought?

Frank Ogelthorpe and John Jones on the 10th teeing ground of the Rancho Park Golf Course

Our great friend Christian Maldonado is a finalist for the Hassleblad Masters photography awards. Please vote for his photographs in the Fine Art category.

Christian is on the Honorary Board of Advisers of the Music is Hope Foundation and has been a major supporter of our project in Sao Paulo with Meninos Do Morumbi.

John, Christian & Richard Martinez at Ayrton Senna's grave

Great Stuff!