(9CD)
Born in Arkansas, (b. July 21, 1917 at Soudan Plantation near Marianna, Arkansas, d. December 19, 1989 in Chicago, Illinois) Jones grew up in the blues-fertile Mississippi Delta
(where he picked up the guitar in his teens). He came to Chicago in the
mid-'40s, working for tips on Maxwell Street with his cousin Moody Jones
and Baby Face Leroy Foster and playing local clubs on a regular
basis.
Floyd was right there when the postwar "Chicago blues" movement first
took flight, recording with harpist Snooky Pryor for Marvel in 1947;
pianist Sunnyland Slim for Tempo Tone the next year (where he cut "Hard
Times"), JOB and Chess in 1952-53, and Vee-Jay in 1955 (where he weighed
in with a typically downcast "Ain't Times Hard").
Jones remained active on the Chicago scene until shortly before his 1989
death, although electric bass had long since replaced the guitar as his
main axe. He participated in Earwig Records' Old Friends sessions in 1979,
sharing a studio with longtime cohorts Sunnyland Slim, Honeyboy Edwards,
Big Walter Horton, and Kansas City Red.