Bio:
Daru Jones is one of the most respected drummers of his generation. Jones is a two-time Grammy Award-Winning musician for his work on Lazaretto (Jack White) and on Testimony (Gloria Gaynor). Born to two professional musicians, he began playing the drums at the age of four. Though he got his start in the church, Jones has been influenced by musicians from a wide range of genres. These eclectic musical tastes have carried over into his own career as he has recorded, performed, and toured with renowned artists and producers such as: Jack White, Pete Rock, Gloria Gaynor, Slum Village, Jamie Lidell, Talib Kweli, Dwight Yoakam, Nas, Pee Wee Ellis, Lorenzo Jovanotti, Queen Latifah, Black Milk, Salaam Remi, Pharoahe Monch, Rance Allen, Black Violin, Ski Beatz & The Sensei’s, and Jon B (partial list). Alongside these artists, Jones has graced the stages of some of the most revered events in the music industry, including: One Mic: Hip-Hop Culture Worldwide! A 20th anniversary celebration of Nas debut album Illmatic, the 2013 Grammy Awards, Austin City Limits, Rock The Bells Festival, and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Receiving rave reviews from: Rolling Stone Magazine, LA Weekly, and USA Today (partial list), he has also appeared on several national and international television programs: The David Letterman Show, Jools Holland (UK), The Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live, and MTV.
Jones has been the “go-to-drummer” in the hip hop game for over a decade. He has shared the stage with legends and emerging stars alike, including: Black Moon, Smif N Wessun, Q-Tip, Mos Def, Raekwon, Curren$y, Pharoahe Monch, Jean Grae, Black Sheep, Digable Planets, Camp_Lo, Smoke Dza, Theophulis London and Large Professor.
Jones is also a sought-after producer and boutique label owner who develops talent and releases music through his imprint, RUSIC RECORDS, LLC. The Brooklyn, NY and Nashville, TN-based producer/musician exhibits a unique approach to beat-making that incorporates live drum loops, jazz and gospel samples, and a soulful musicianship into all of his projects. Over the past decade, Jones has produced and released a catalog of projects he classifies as “soul-hop” featuring collaborations with vocalists and rappers: Kissey Asplund, Ishe', Jasiri X, Reggie B, Rena, AB, and Eagle Nebula, among others. In addition to these RUSIC projects, Jones has produced original and remixed tracks for recording artists including : Muhsinah, iSHE, Jessie Boykins III and Kendra Ross.
2015 was an amazing year for Jones. His performance on “Lazaretto , ” the first single from Jack White’s second solo album of the same name, helped White earn a 2015 Grammy for Best Rock Performance. Jones has also received high accolades for his performances on the Lazaretto Tour (his second with White). Most recently, he was featured on Esquire.com, declared the “Unsung Hero of Coachella 2015″ by Fuse.tv, and named “Best Drummer of Coachella 2015″ by the LA Times Music Blog, Pop & Hiss.
After wrapping up the Blunderbuss and Lazaretto Tour with White, Jones recorded in late 2015 and toured the globe in 2016-2017 with eclectic soulster, Jamie Lidell in support his release, “Building a Beginning.”
Daru is currently prepping for an upcoming release from super group, DMD the Vibes with Jones, guitar wunderkind Marcus Machado, and legendary Living Colour bassist, Doug Wimbish. In 2018, Jones teamed up with hip-hop producer, Pete Rock and a member also the music director for his new live band, The Soul Brothers. Jones also recently joined forces with Pharoahe Monch as well as power house Rock-Hop trio called, Th1rt3en.
Daru was also the featured drummer on Gloria Gaynor’s recent 2020 Grammy win for “Best Roots Gospel Album”. This critically acclaimed album is Gaynor’s first award in 40 years. Jones also played on Gaynor’s Grammy Nominated song “Something Bout Jesus” featuring Yolanda Adams.
Dana Davis, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta, Stewart Copeland, Steve Smith, Peter Eskine, Bernard Purdie, Virgil Donati, Dave Weckl, Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Gene Krupa, Omar Hakim, Bill Maxwell, Questlove
Producer Influences:
DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Dre, Marley Marl, Jay Dee (J.Dilla), Kay Gee, Rza, Da Beatminerz, Eric B, Eric Sermon, The Bomb Squad, Bill Maxwell, Micheal Brooks
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).