The desire to transmute grief into art isn’t the only reason Jones quit his trading job.
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He says a little bit more than ‘Mama’ and ‘I can’t breathe.’ I realized the eight-bar blues format is the perfect foundation to express what George Floyd was saying.”
#RUFUS JONES FULL#
“I’m sitting on the trading desk, on July 8th, reading the full body camera transcript. Now part of my purpose is to communicate love, the solution, through music." "I achieved my goal to be a Wall Street trader. “Transcription 846 Blues” recounts Floyd’s last words in a blues framework, which Jones made to fit into 8 minutes and 46 seconds - the time police officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck just before his death. In “Articles Blues” there is “Black Birders,” inspired by a Black bird watcher who was threatened by a white woman in Central Park in New York City. It’s a mix of the sweet and personal, and a year’s worth of hard news.
![rufus jones rufus jones](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tXIWIchuG_M/mqdefault.jpg)
While the Memphis, Tenn.-born Jones has been writing music for decades, this will be his first digital release, with 20 songs. Then, last month, his album landed on music sites including Apple Music and Spotify. In November, he quit that day job after amassing his own recording equipment, and learning do-it-yourself-style production and distribution. Soon, there would be other horrors in the 2020 news cycle, including the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis Police custody in May.įor Jones, the news sparked more songs, and the music flying through him needed more of his time. Then came the cornavirus pandemic that confined him to his Jersey City, N.J., apartment.