Reginald Jones

In Bessemer, AL, Reginald Jones grappled early on with the toy guitar that arrived as a Christmas gift from his parents. At twelve he voiced this prayer: "Lord if you teach me how to play this guitar I will play it for you the rest of my life to draw people to you." The plea proved effective; before long he was matching Walter Hawkins' recordings and seizing every spare moment to rehearse. Gospel remained his first love, yet his father's passion for jazz steadily took hold as the years passed. Once Jones reached adulthood the two styles carried equal weight in his work, while songwriting had become the guitarist's central pursuit. Those strands merged on his debut album, My Rainbow - A Promise by God, released in 2005.