Kristen Jones
Kristen Jones
Baltimore, MD
Folk / World / Jazz
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Bio
Kristen Jones is a freelance musician based in Baltimore, MD. Classically trained on cello, she discovered the steel pan at Oberlin College and has performed with steelbands in Trinidad, Brooklyn and the DC-metro area. For over 10 years she was an arranger and bandleader with Pan Masters Steel Orchestra. Now rediscovering the cello and focusing on more eclectic projects on both instruments, she brings a very diverse musical background to all types of music: folk, bluegrass, Celtic, jazz, world and more. Kristen is available for recordings and collaborations, and can be seen performing with several groups in the DC-metro and Baltimore areas. By day, Kristen is the general manager at House of Musical Traditions in Takoma Park, MD.
About
Cello and steel pan...certainly not a combination you see too often. Here’s a bit about how that came to be, and some information on my current and past projects:
Up until I went to college, my musical world was almost strictly classical. Coming from a family of classical musicians, I started on piano earlier than I can remember, and picked up cello at the age of eight. I spent several years playing with the prestigious Empire State Youth Orchestra, attended summer camps at the Tanglewood Institute and the like, and was really on track to becoming a professional cellist. I had my heart set on attending Oberlin Conservatory, but didn’t make the audition cut. I was accepted into Oberlin’s liberal arts College, and went there with the intention of re-auditioning for the conservatory.
It didn’t take too long to figure out that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my college days in a practice room, bending to the whims of how a professor wanted me to interpret Bach, or spend the rest of my life competing for seats in orchestras. I started discovering other musical genres and realized there was so much more out there. Oberlin has a student-run steelband that offered a learn-to-play class. I took that for pure enjoyment, then ended up joining the band, then ended up being talked into traveling to Trinidad to play with BP Renegades, one of the best steelbands in the world (of over 100 players) for their Panorama competition. After decidedly falling in love with that musical culture, I returned to Oberlin with a focus of broadening my musical horizons. I designed my own major in Ethnomusicology with a concentration on the steel pan. I took classes in the musics of India and Africa, learned the Kora and played in the Gamelan ensemble, and got involved in jazz studies. I returned to Trinidad to study music for a semester at the University of the West Indies, and would return several more times over the next few years to play with the Renegades Steel Orchestra for Panorama.
After graduating in 1999, I moved to the DC area where I knew there was a great steelband—Pan Masters Steel Orchestra. I got very involved with them and eventually became one of the musical arrangers--and also was the bandleader for several years. My arrangements won the band honors at DC Carnival, Brooklyn Labor Day Carnival, and Baltimore Harborfest. With Pan Masters I got to perform at venues large & small all over the mid-Atlantic, including the Bluemont Concert Series, Bethlehem Musikfest, the Smithsonian, and Institute of Musical Traditions. I also taught dozens of folks of all ages to play pan through Pan Masters’ classes. The tracks "Dulahin" and "Dizzy's Medley" are my arrangements that appear on the band's 2005 CD "On de Road," which I helped to produce.
Since 1999 I have worked at the House of Musical Traditions in Takoma Park, MD (where I am now general manager). This has enabled me to meet all kinds of musicians, and I got involved in some side projects—but almost exclusively on pan. These included the very eclectic Lulu’s Fate, which mixed old-time Appalachian and string band songs with jazz, originals and Caribbean music; and 50 Man Machine, a mix of rock, reggae, Celtic and folk. There are some 50 Man tracks on here from previous recordings they have done. I am not playing on these (the pannist is Scott Smallwood), but I hope to have some recordings with me up soon.
Through HMT I also I met rob hinkal of the band ilyAIMY. They had talked about adding some cello tracks to their upcoming CD ("Baliset" and "No Blue Left," featured here), and I happily obliged, wanting to get the cello out of its case more. I then started bringing in cello to many of 50 Man’s tunes. I'll be appearing on soon-to-be-released recordings with Baltimore's own “Immigrant Rocker” mOsno, and with Tosin Aribisala's Afrobeat awesomeness. You can often see me performing around the area with ilyAIMY and 50 Man Machine.
It’s been an amazing and slightly crazy journey, but I’m so grateful for all the different musical experiences that have brought me to this point. Though my day job doesn’t give me enough time to completely focus on music, I’m excited to collaborate with other musicians of any genre who are looking to add cello and/or steel pans into their music.
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by Kristen Jones
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