Profiles

Paul Jones is a Composer, Improviser and Pianist.
He is associate composer with the Cardiff New Music Collective, and writes and performs with several music groups including the improvised noise trio Sound Engineer, and the Post-Jazz quartet The Jones O’Connor Group.

Recent composition works include “Cops and Robbers” for the AL-A-KA-ZAM event as part of the National Experimentica Festival, which saw musicians from several disciplines brought together to perform as a large improvising ensemble, and “Spring-Leaf-Spring” for The Cardiff New Music Collective, which will be featured on their new release.
He was Composer in Residence at the Brecon Jazz Festival in 2006, and has had commissions from the P.R.S Foundation, Ruth is Stranger than Richard Theatre Company, the Wales Jazz Composers Orchestra, the Sherman Theatre and the In Transit Ensemble.
Recent performance highlights include a piano and electronics duet with Keith Tippett at the Wales Millenium Centre, and a nationwide tour in Nov/Dec 08 with The Jones O’Connor Group including several appearances at the London Jazz Festival.

In 2007 the Sonic Arts Network invited him to appear at their Expo in Plymouth where he performed a drone composition entitled “+/_ for two Organs” which explored very slow changes in pitch at high volume.
In October 2007 he collaborated with the Poet Ian McMillan, writing a song for the Leeds Lieder Festival entitled “I Just wanted to write a song that would reverberate in your heart”.

Other Collaborations include working with, the Welsh National Opera Company, Diversions Dance Company, the artist Linder Sterling/Ludus & The Goldie Lookin’ Chain on their top 10 album “Greatest Hits”.
His composition work for theatre has included a new score for Samuel Beckett's radio play Words and Music and music for Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle. He has most recently been working on a project at the Sherman Theatre bringing together composers from different disciplines with writers and directors to create new and inventive work for the stage.

From 2004 until 2006 he coorganized a music platform called The Quarter, promoting the work of a diverse array of established and emerging artists with an interest in improvisation. These included Berlin based Incite/Gradcom, Ry-om, Rhodri Davies, Kid Carpet, LRS and others. A double bill featuring Sound Engineer and Shoji Hano/ Gary Smith ensued from this.

In July 2008 he completed a Masters degree in Composition at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama for which he received a distinction and the academic prize.
He devised and leads the Junior Jazz Pathways course (part of the Junior Music Department) at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and works as a Pianist and Lecturer in the senior college’s Jazz Department. Paul Jones is an S.P.N.M shortlisted composer until 2011.