Over the last five decades, Salena Jones has been a central figure on the British jazz scene and from her base here she has conquered the world. Salena has played everywhere, from Canada, throughout Europe, South Africa, South America, to the US and Asia, where she has appeared in Japan virtually annually since 1978, and where she is a well loved artiste. Her recording career has reflected her ability to both choose exciting repertoire and also to move beyond jazz boundaries. She has made 43 solo albums and 22 singles to date. Salena has sung with Louis Armstrong, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Maynard Ferguson, Mark Murphy, Lionel Hampton, Kenny Burrell, Dudley Moore, Roy Budd, and Toots Thielemans, Tom Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim, the BBC Big Band and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra....
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Over the last five decades, Salena Jones has been a central figure on the British jazz scene and from her base here she has conquered the world. Salena has played everywhere, from Canada, throughout Europe, South Africa, South America, to the US and Asia, where she has appeared in Japan virtually annually since 1978, and where she is a well loved artiste. Her recording career has reflected her ability to both choose exciting repertoire and also to move beyond jazz boundaries. She has made 43 solo albums and 22 singles to date. Salena has sung with Louis Armstrong, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Maynard Ferguson, Mark Murphy, Lionel Hampton, Kenny Burrell, Dudley Moore, Roy Budd, and Toots Thielemans, Tom Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim, the BBC Big Band and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
However, wanting to expand her horizons, and concerned at the racism in her native country, Joan Shaw bought a one way ticket to Madrid where, having sung one song at the "Whiskey and Jazz Club", on the same night as her arrival in Spain, she was immediately engaged to sing nightly with Dexter Gordon.
But London called, and arriving in 1965, her management recommended a name-change: and Salena Jones was born!
She was soon booked to appear for the first time at Ronnie Scott`s for two weeks but, such was the audience reaction that she was held over for another week, and then another: eventually appearing for seven consecutive weeks - still a record after all this time for one of the most famous clubs in the world.
Over the last five decades, Salena Jones has been a central figure on the British jazz scene and from her base here she has conquered the world. Salena has played everywhere, from Canada, throughout Europe, South Africa, South America, to the US and Asia, where she has appeared in Japan virtually annually since 1978, and where she is a well loved artiste.
Salena`s recording career has reflected her ability to both choose exciting repertoire and also to move beyond jazz boundaries. She has made 43 solo albums and 22 singles to date. Salena has sung with Louis Armstrong, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Maynard Ferguson, Mark Murphy, Lionel Hampton, Kenny Burrell, Dudley Moore, Roy Budd, and Toots Thielemans, Tom Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim, the BBC Big Band and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Latterly, Salena appeared in China for the second time at the Shanghai Jazz Festival, in Thailand for the "Hua Hin Jazz Festival" and made further tours of Japan. 2015 also saw Salena star on a jazz cruise dedicated to her around Korea, and she will return yet again to tour Japan both this summer and again in December.
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