Jean Claude Jones was born in Sfax, Tunisia. He moved to France at a young age, where he taught himself to play bass and lead guitar. At the age of 17 he was playing in professional popular music and jazz bands. In 1978 he moved to the US where he pursued formal musical studies. In 1981 he graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he majored in jazz guitar, and moved to Los Angeles where he studied guitar and bass at the Music Institute of Technology for two years. He emigrated to Israel in 1983 and became a key player in the newly developing jazz scene. In 1986 he made a definitive switch from bass guitar to double bass, and became involved in free improvised music. Over time he added electronics and computer-manipulated sounds to his musical arsenal.

JC Jones is an esteemed music educator and served as chair of the Jazz Department at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance between 1996 and 2000. He has performed and recorded with many leading international and Israeli musicians, dancers, poets and vocal artists, including Stan Getz (1985), Red Rodney (1986) Dave Liebman (1988). Since the 1990s he has appeared with John Zorn, Anthony Coleman, Ned Rothenberg, Joey Baron, Marc Ribot, Ikue Mori, Mike Patton, Damon Smith, Joelle Leandre, Slava Ganelin, Steve Horenstein, Albert Beger, Arkady Gotesman, Avishai Cohen, Ariel Shibolet, Harold Rubin, Victoria Hanna, Josef Sprinzak , Amos Hetz, Anat Shamgar ,Felix Ruckert, Dieter Hautkamp, Julyen Hamilton and others.

JC Jones's current projects include the Excited Strings duo with cellist Yuval Mesner, Between the Strings trio with viola player Nori Jacoby and violinist Daniel Hoffman, and Doubletake duo with pianist Ariel.

He is currently involved in organizing a major bass festival,"Deep Tones for Peace," scheduled to take place Jerusalem in the Spring of 2009 with fellow bassists Mark Dresser, Barre Phillips, Joelle Leandre, Bert Turetzky, and possibly William Parker, Barry Guy, Avishai Cohen, and Henry Grimes.

The driving force behind JC's work is "finding one's space."

Contact:
Email: jcjones@zahav.net.il or jeanclaude.kadima@gmail.com
Home: +972-2-6251185, +972 2 623 6892
Mobile: +972-54-6394905