Booker T. Jones

Booker T. Jones

Booker T. Jones is a Memphis-born multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known for leading Booker T. & the MG’s. Born in 1944 in South Memphis, Tennessee, he grows up playing several instruments, including oboe, saxophone, trombone and piano, and also serves as an organist at his church.

Early life and first recording work

Jones attends Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis. While still at school, he makes his first professional recording appearance at sixteen, playing baritone saxophone on Rufus Thomas and Carla Thomas’s “Cause I Love You”, a first hit for Satellite Records, which later becomes Stax Records.

He also spends time around the Satellite Record Shop run by Estelle Axton, where he meets record clerk Steve Cropper. Cropper later becomes one of the original members of Booker T. & the MG’s.

Booker T. & the MG’s

Booker T. & the MG’s form in 1962 with Jones on organ, Steve Cropper on guitar, Lewie Steinberg on bass and Al Jackson, Jr. on drums, with Donald “Duck” Dunn later replacing Steinberg. Jones writes the group’s instrumental “Green Onions” while still in high school. The track becomes a hit in 1962 and remains one of the group’s best-known recordings.

The group is associated with soul, funk, blues, instrumental, blues rock, electric blues, instrumental rock, R&B and soul music. Jones also appears as part of related Stax-associated acts including The Mar-Keys, The Packers, The Stax Staff, The RCO All-Stars and Delaney & Bonnie.

Songwriting, session work and production

While studying classical music composition and working on composition and transposition at Indiana University, Jones continues to play with the MG’s on weekends in Memphis and works as a session musician for other Stax artists.

As a songwriter, he co-writes “I’ve Never Found a Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)” with Eddie Floyd, Otis Redding’s “I Love You More Than Words Can Say”, and “Born Under a Bad Sign” with William Bell for Albert King. The last of these later becomes widely known through Cream’s version.

In 1970, Jones moves to California and stops doing Stax sessions after becoming dissatisfied with the way the label treats the MG’s as employees. He still appears on Stephen Stills’ self-titled album while under Stax contract. The 1971 album Melting Pot is the last Booker T. & the MG’s album issued on Stax.

Jones produces three albums with his former wife under the name Booker T. & Priscilla. He also works as a producer for Priscilla’s sister Rita Coolidge, Bill Withers’s debut album Just As I Am, on which he also plays several instruments, and Willie Nelson’s Stardust. His keyboards also appear on recordings by Ray Charles, Neil Young and Natalie Merchant.

Solo work and later activity

Jones enters the charts as a solo artist in 1981 with “I Want You”. He also records for labels including Book Records and House of Jones Music. He continues to play with Booker T. & the MG’s and with his own Booker T. Jones Band.

Awards and recognition

Jones is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and receives a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2007.