Wizz Jones
Background information
Birth name	Raymond Ronald Jones
Born	23 April 1939
Origin	Croydon, Surrey, England
Genre(s)	Folk music
Years active	late 1950s - present
Website	www.wizzjones.com

Raymond Ronald Jones (1939 – ), better-known as Wizz Jones is an English acoustic guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been performing since the late 1950s and recording from 1965 to the present. He has worked with many of the notable guitarists of the English folk music revival, such as John Renbourn and Bert Jansch.

Contents 1 Early Days 2 The Folk period 3 Discography 4 External links

Early Days

Raymond Ronald Jones was born 23 April 1939, in Croydon, Surrey. He became infatuated with the bohemian image of Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac and grew his hair long. His mother had started calling him Wizzy after the Beano comic strip character "Wizzy the Wuz" because at the age of nine Raymond was a budding magician. The nickname stuck throughout his school years and when he formed his first band "The Wranglers" in 1957 the name became permanent. Bert Jansch later said “I think he’s the most underrated guitarist ever”. In the early 60’s he went busking in Paris, and there mixed in an artistic circle that included Rod Stewart, Alex Campbell, Clive Palmer (Incredible String Band) and Ralph McTell. After a couple of years in Paris he married and returned to England to raise a family. In 1965 his only single was released: Bob Dylan's “Ballad of Hollis Brown”. By this time the skiffle boom was over but one of the stars of that movement, Chas McDevitt, used Wizz Jones’s guitar-playing on 5 albums in 1965 and 1966. Another musician on those sessions was bluegrass banjo-player Pete Stanley. In 1966 Wizz Jones and Pete Stanley released an album “Sixteen Tons of Bluegrass”, but this partnership broke down in 1967. Wizz then turned solo.

The Folk period

Wizz started to became a singer and songwriter. His first solo album was “Wizz Jones” in 1969. Up to 1988, ten solo albums followed and he was on Ralph McTell’s single “Take it Easy” in 1974. Most of his recordings from this period are long out of print. A brief excursion as a member of the traditional folk band “Lazy Farmer” in 1975 produced an album that was reissued in 2006. The early 1990s were a quiet period. He almost disappeared from public view. When in the mid-nineties he appeared on the Bert Jansch TV Documentary "Acoustic Routes" there was renewed interest in his work.In 2001 he led John Renbourn and other members of Pentangle on the album “Lucky The Man”. In 2007 "The Legendary Me" was reissued on CD.

Discography

Albums - solo.

• Wizz Jones (1969)
• The Legendary Me (1970)
• Right Now (*) (1972)
• When I Leave Berlin (E.P.) (**) (1973)
• Winter Song}(1974)
• Lazy Farmer (1975)
• Happiness Was Free (1976)
• Magical Flight (1977)
• Soloflight (***) (1978)
• Letter from West Germany (197?)
• The Grapes of Live (1987)
• Live In Dublin (1991)
• Late Nights and Long Days (1993)
• Dazzling Stranger (1995)
• Through the Fingers (2001)
• Lucky The Man (2001)
• Young Fashioned Ways (2004)

(*) with John Renbourn and others. (**) with Bert Jansch. (***) Includes recordings from 1970 - 74

Collaboration - Pete Stanley and Wizz Jones.

• Sixteen Tons of Bluegrass (1966)
• [re-issued on CD] "More Than Sixteen Tons" (2000)
• Way Out West Italy (1966)

Group - Lazy Farmer (including Wizz Jones).

• Lazy Farmer (1975)

Collaboration - Wizz Jones and Werner Lammerhirt.

• Roll On River (1981)

Anthology - Alex Campbell, Andy Irvine, Wizz Jones, Finbar Furey, Dolores Keane et al.

• Folk Friends 2 (1981)

Compilations.

• The Village Thing Tapes (1992)

Single.

• The Ballad of Hollis Brown/ Riff Minor (1965)

DVDs.

• Masters of the British Guitar (VHS) (1998)
• Wizz Jones - Maestros of the Guitar No 1 (2006)

Session recordings.

• Ralph McTell: "Easy" (1974)
• Derroll Adams “Songs of the Banjoman” (1984)

External links

• Wizz Jones' website