Chris Jones (1970-) is the son of Terry "Buffalo T." Jones, a singer/songwriter who penned the country-western hit 1983's "Red Neck And Over Thirty" (Billboard 71). After some success in Nashville he entered the college/public radio industry and built what would become the Long Island Radio Network.
Chris started playing music professionally at age 16 with well-regarded jazz drummer Jim Chapin. Through Chapin he met Ray Williams, began studying classical contrabass and competed that year in All-State competitions receiving 6A's in both jazz and classical. The following year, he studied drumming with Chapin as a trade-off for playing bass in his jazz groups and again competed All-State receiving a performance scholarship and 4A's in jazz (kit) and classical (mallets).
On said scholarship (and tuition remission), Chris attended LIU's C.W. Post and began a music major with a minor in film. At Post he met faculty member Frank Cassara (Steve Reich, Philip Glass), began studying mallets/percussion and performed with Avant-Garde Ensemble, Opera Workshop, Wind Ensemble, and Orchestra on both bass and percussion. All performances took place at the world renowned Tilles Center.
Two years later he transferred to Berklee College Of Music and enrolled in the Film Scoring program. Marti Epstein, Steve Wilkes, Rick Applin, David Spear, and Bruce Gertz would all prove to be new music mentors. He was an (fretless) electric bass principal, doubled on upright, and went on to play Chapman Stick in the Berklee Performance Center in a concert honoring (ironically) Mr. Jim Chapin. He was an active musician at Berklee playing in ensembles, 100+ recording sessions (FS and MP&E), and in rock bands gigging everywhere in Boston.
After graduating (FS '95 Diploma), he moved back to L.I. to focus on composing work. First clients included: Nickelodeon (Dora The Explorer designer Helena Gierz/Funline Animation), director David B. Levy (ASIFA, Adult Swim, Noggin), Manhattoons (MTV's Cartoon Sushi, Atom Films), and producer Robert Charde (Blue's Clues, Sesame Street, Mo Willems). These freelance projects went on to win Telly, CINE Golden Eagle, and BDA Awards. Between jobs he played GB gigs (jazz/blues/rock/theatre), drove taxi, and DJ'd in both the electronic (live PA) and jazz (public radio) settings. (WPBX LIU Southampton).
He was hired by VideoHelper Production Music Library in 1999 as staff composer/sr. producer. In his period at VideoHelper he earned many credits including: The Sopranos, ABC, NBC, CBS/Viacom, Miramax, HBO, Adidas, Akklaim, and TBS. He licensed music and sound design for over 40 movie trailers, co-developed and produced their ScoreHelper and Modules libraries and served as staff orchestrator. His work while at VideoHelper has been written about in Post, Mix, Pro Sound News, and Create Digital Music.
In September of 2006, Chris accompanied VH to the Czech Republic to produce the Moravian Philharmonic in a recording session of 12-tone/atonal orchestral music and effects composed and orchestrated by Penka Kouneva (orch. Hostel, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End, Transformers), CJ, and VideoHelper. Also that year, he co-wrote/produced a track entitled "Fool" for Robin Danar's album Altered States (Shanachie) with Andy Levin and Holly Palmer. The album is a collection of covers produced and performed by different guest artists including Pete Yorn, Kinky, Lisa Loeb, Paul Buchanan and others.
Chris left VideoHelper staff (still freelances) in late 2007 and formed Circa 70 Music, Inc. (CA70, ASCAP). Currently, he produces and DJ's electronic dance music (dubstep/trip-hop/nu-jazz) under the name Overcast Radio. He's active in the US/UK dubstep community releasing tracks on several labels, getting play on BBC Radio 1, and playing NYC's Dub War party (with Kode 9) in support of mixing Vol.4 of their well-known podcast series. As a musician, Chris plays bass within the New York free-jazz/improv community with Stereophile recording artists Attention Screen and has performed/worked with Daniel Carter, Don Fiorino, Mark Flynn, David Gould, Andy Haas, Michael Leonhart, Mary Lorson, Dafna Naphtali, Robert Reina, Blaise Siwula and others. Attention Screen is currently producing their 2nd live record for Stereophile and plays regularly in NYC. Overcast Radio features some of these musicians as well.
He is endorsed by Moog and is a member of ASCAP, AFM*, and Freelancers Union. He is an independent music producer seeking relationships with music-houses, post-production facilities, artists, composers, and labels as a provider of unique modern music and sound design for media. Winning a Grammy and becoming a musicologist are his long-term goals.
CA70 is located at 3rd Ward Artspace, Brooklyn. His studio runs on both Windows (XPC) and Macintosh (2.8 Quad) hosting DP as the main DAW, Lavry, Lynx, and Apogee converters/clock, and sums analog through a Dangerous 2-Bus 16X2 mixer. The mix is monitored through a Cranesong Avocet feeding Genelec 1030A's.
(* pending as of 12/08)
.
www.circa70.org
www.circa70.org/versiontwo
DUB WAR PODCAST 4Available now on Apparatus Recordings:
