Philip Jones

Who was Philip Jones?

Philip Jones CBE was a British trumpeter and leader of an internationally famous brass chamber music ensemble.

Philip Jones was born in Bath, England. In 1944 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He became principal trumpet for most major London orchestras: The Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the Philharmonic, the New Philharmonia and the BBC Symphony. His playing continues a line of English trumpeters that stretches back to Ernest Hall.

In 1951 he had formed the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, one of the first brass ensembles working regularly as a stable group. They grew from four members to ten and larger for special projects. The most usual formations were the quintet and the ten-piece. The success of these formations owes much to Philip Jones's work.

After 1971 he devoted himself to it full-time and the group commanded long commitment from many fine players including: the trumpeters Elgar Howarth, John Wilbraham, Michael Laird and James Watson; horn players Ifor James and Frank Lloyd; trombonists John Iveson and Raymond Premru; and the renowned tubist John Fletcher. They made 50 recordings and toured over 30 countries finding particular popularity in Japan. Repertoire spanned from transcriptions of early music by the likes of Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli, and Johann Pezel, to new works for the medium commissioned by Jones. These included pieces by Witold Lutosławski, Hans Werner Henze and Einojuhani Rautavaara; altogether they performed 87 world premieres. The ensemble's leader was noted for his meticulous preparations at every concert, lining up the music stands himself, his personal commitment being one of the reasons for the ensemble's success.