Philip Jones

J.-P. M.: Philip Jones, your name is quite famous today, but what is your background? When did you begin to play the trumpet, and who did you study with, and what music did you like when you first started?

P. J.: Well, I first played the piano, which I didn't like at all, and I suppose I heard brass sounds from the age of four or five. You see, I come from a family of professional brass players — my father played the trombone, and my uncle and my grandfather played trumpets. So I heard a lot of brass music from an early age, but I actually began to play myself at nine.

J.-P. M.: What sort of music did your relatives play?

P. J.: They were all in small orchestras in the provinces in England between the 1920’s and the 30’s playing classical music, so I was brought up very much with a classical background. That means we didn't hear much popular music at home, and I certainly didn't play any myself. I think that's a great disadvantage for any musician, but in those days, that is the 30’s, you were either a classical musician or a popular musician. That's a pity, I think.

Anyway, at the age of nine, which I think is a little late to begin, I started playing. I began in a local drum and bugle band which on Sundays after church service marched around the district banging and blowing.