Oliver Jones: The Musician, the Man.

Ann Turner is Financial and Budget Manager at the University of British
Columbia Library.

This biography of Canadian jazz great Oliver Jones tells his story simply and clearly, as if the musician himself was telling it to the reader. Born in Montreal to parents who had emigrated from Barbados, Oliver showed musical talent early and gave his first public performance as a pianist at the age of five. The experiences of his childhood and youth offer a rare glimpse into the daily lives of English-speaking black families in Montreal during and after the Second World War. Oliver’s work as a musician took him to Puerto Rico for 15 years, but he returned to Montreal in 1980 and began playing, recording, and promoting jazz, the music he had loved since childhood. He taught, arranged, composed and toured internationally. During his career and even in semi-retirement he has received many prestigious awards, including the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for lifetime artistic achievement in 2005. The details of Oliver’s active musical life show that it has not been an easy one for himself or his family. Dr. Sansregret, Oliver’s exclusive biographer, worked closely with him to tell it all, the good times and the bad, so that readers will come to know more of this outstanding artist and find inspiration in his life and work.