Search - Raymond Jones :: Hillside Stories

Multi-platinum selling composer-pianist-vocalist Raymond Jones releases his fifth solo album Hillside Stories with a strident call for awareness of the political issues of the day. It features compositions dealing with hot-button topics such as death-row inmates in Texas ( Blood ), a black nationalist coming to terms with his past ( Dossier ) to Third World children being abused and rendered ( Promenade ). The lone instrumental, 2 24 04 , features Jones and Steve Scales on percussion easing back offering a brief respite then its back to speaking truth to power. A work conceived in the rebellious spirits of influential greats like Nina Simone and Gil Scott-Heron. Jones said, "They both took the stand that black music of America came from a legacy of expression, resistance and struggle, and music was the best way to communicate ideas to people in an artistic manner."