Vocalist Joan Watson-Jones Returns to the Lilypad This Week

Vocalist Joan Watson-Jones, a mainstay on the New England Jazz scene, returns to The Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge Street in Cambridge, MA, on Saturday, April 23, at 4:30 pm. Joining Watson-Jones to perform songs from her latest CD, Choices, and other favorite tunes are Pianist Frank Wilkins, Bassist Dave Zox and Drummer Alvin Terry.

Tickets are $12.00 and are available at www.joanwatsonjones.com/lilypad-tickets.

Joan Watson-Jones is a singer, lyricist, multi-instrumentalist, and host/producer of The Jazz Room, an online radio program where she plays music and interviews some of the top names in jazz. On Choices, her fourth album, she presents a program of her own original songs with music and lyrics, plus two standards.

A resident of New Hampshire, Watson-Jones spends much of her time at her family home in Harlem in New York City, where she was raised. Entertaining is in her DNA. Her mother was a dancer who performed at the Moulin Rouge in Paris and later became a pioneering female boxer. Her father, a respected doctor, helped start the Upper Manhattan Medical Group and was on the team of physicians who saved Martin Luther King's life when he was stabbed while signing books in a Harlem department store in 1958.

Watson-Jones has been playing music since she was four years old, when she began taking piano and tap dance lessons from her mother's former manager. She credits her years of tap dancing with developing her impeccable sense of rhythm. Throughout the years, she continued her study of piano and also learned to play guitar and drums. Although her father supported her musical studies, he was also a very practical person and encouraged her to pursue an academic path. She received a master's degree in Music Education and had a long career as a teacher, first in the Bronx and then in New Hampshire, where she eventually settled. With encouragement from her husband, she decided to follow her passion and retired from teaching to build a full-time career as a performer and writer.

Watson-Jones' band features three old friends with whom she's performed and recorded in various settings for 25 years. Pianist Frank Wilkins is her arranger, accompanist and creative partner. He has a long list of credits, including backing Dee Dee Bridgewater. Wilkins also accompanied Watson-Jones on her previous CD, Quiet Conversation, an intimate duet project. Bassist Dave Zox and Drummer Alvin Terry are Watson-Jones' long-time rhythm section who join her on Choices and in concert at The Lilypad.

Watson-Jones has recorded her own lyrics on other albums, but this is her first project featuring almost all original material. For Watson-Jones, nothing is more important than the people in her life. She is a natural storyteller, and the stories she tells grow from her life experiences.

The concert at The Lilypad is presented by Eye of Samantha Productions, LLC. For more information on Joan Watson-Jones and her music, log on to www.joanwatsonjones.com.

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