Born in Chicago, on , Jones and his family moved to Seattle when he was ten. At 12, he was in a gospel group, and two years later formed his first band with a young Ray Charles. School trumpet lessons were followed briefly by studies with the famous jazz trumpeter, Clark Terry .
A child prodigy, Jones was awarded a scholarship to what became the prestigious Berklee School of Music, beginning his studies there in 1951, and later studied arranging...