Bob Jones

[paul secor]

I've been listening to a couple of Ace (UK) blues reissue LPs this afternoon. Both were remastered by Bob Jones, who did a lot of great work for Ace and Flyright, among other labels, during the late 70's to late 80's.

Those were golden years for blues and r&b reissues, and to my ears, he was the best at what he did. Thinking about it, he also did some fine work for Bear Family on several country sets in my collection. I think of his work in the same way that many people here think of Steve Hoffman's or Rudy Van Gelder's remastering work on jazz reissues.

I realize that if the original recording is poorly done, all the mastering and remastering in the world will be of no use. But it does take a good set of ears and a lot of engineering talent to take recorded material which was intended for release on 78 rpm or 45 rpm and make it sound good on a reissue LP or CD. I've heard enough mediocre to bad transfers to know that well.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone on the Board knows if Bob Jones is still active or still alive - I hope both.

[Free For All]

When I read the title I thought you might be referring to Bob Jones University.

Thankfully, I was wrong.

[paul secor]

Not the University, nor Bobby Jones, the golfer, not even Bobby Jones, formerly of the 76ers.

Forgot to mention in my thread that Bob Jones loved r&b, blues, and early rock n roll - he may have had other musical loves that I don't know about too. For a short time, he had his own reissue label, Detour, which didn't survive into the CD era. I believe that he also may have been involved with the ZuZazz label.

I think that I read somewhere that he was one of the engineers working for the Decca label, recording classical music in the 1960s. I may be wrong about that, so if anyone knows, I'm all ears.

[Stereojack]

Don't know a lot about him, except that he's been called Boppin' Bob Jones in some quarters. May still be involved with Ace, who continue to release high quality reissues.

[Chuck Nessa]

You might contact Ace with the question. I think they'd be glad to help.