Booker T. Jones helped shape the Memphis soul sound during the 1960s by leading Booker T. & the M.G.'s. The ensemble achieved multiple successes under its own name while serving as Stax Records' core studio group. Jones' reach extended well beyond those duties, however, as he contributed production, songwriting, arranging, and instrumental performances to an unusually wide range of musicians, among them Willie Nelson, John Lee Hooker, Soul Asylum, and the Roots.
Born November 12, 1944, in Memphis, Tennessee, Jones showed an early passion for music. While delivering newspapers he frequently paused outside the home of jazz pianist Phineas Newborn to hear him rehearse. By high school Jones was already directing the school band and had become skilled on saxophone, trombone, oboe, and keyboards. He also played organ at church services yet sometimes slipped away to join R&B groups in neighborhood clubs. In 1960, as a regular patron of Memphis' Satellite Record Shop, he was asked to play saxophone on a Rufus and Carla Thomas session after proprietors Estelle Axton and Jim Stewart launched their own label. That venture became Stax Records, and Jones joined guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Lewis Steinberg (later replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn), and drummer Al Jackson, Jr., to form the M.G.'s. They backed Stax artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, and Albert King while issuing their own instrumental recordings, among them the hit single "Green Onions."
Jones maintained this pace even while attending Indiana University full time, where he studied composition and music theory and returned home only on weekends and breaks for gigs and sessions. Booker T. & the M.G.'s thrived through hits, support for Stax headliners, a European and U.K. tour with the Stax/Volt Revue, and their appearance behind Otis Redding at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Internal tensions at the label over proceeds from its Atlantic distribution agreement, combined with the members' expanding individual schedules, pushed the group toward dissolution. Jones moved to Los Angeles in 1970. He had already expanded his work, contributing to Delaney & Bonnie's 1969 album Home and Mitch Ryder's The Detroit-Memphis Experiment. After the M.G.'s 1971 release Melting Pot, the band quietly disbanded.
Jones continued session playing on albums by Bob Dylan, Stephen Stills, Kris Kristofferson, and Rita Coolidge. That same year he issued Booker T. & Priscilla, the first of two albums recorded with then-wife Priscilla Coolidge-Jones, sister of Rita Coolidge. He also produced Bill Withers' debut Just as I Am, which included the hits "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands." While preparing a 1975 reunion project, the M.G.'s lost Al Jackson, Jr., to murder; they briefly continued with drummer Willie Hall before parting again in 1977. Jones released his debut solo album Try and Love Again in 1978 and achieved major success producing Willie Nelson's Stardust, a set of pop standards that helped establish Nelson as a leading country crossover artist.
Production and session work with Nelson occupied much of Jones' time through the 1980s, though he issued the solo album I Want You in 1981 and followed it late in the decade with The Runaway. In 1992 Booker T. & the M.G.'s entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and reunited for a high-profile concert serving as house band for an all-star salute to Bob Dylan's thirtieth year as a recording artist. Neil Young, among the performers, was sufficiently impressed to hire the M.G.'s for his 1993 tour. Renewed interest led to the 1994 album That's the Way It Should Be and subsequent live dates. Jones resumed steady session and production work, appearing on and producing Neil Young's 2002 album Are You Passionate? In 2008 he released the ambitious Potato Hole, recorded with the Drive-By Truckers and featuring additional guitar from Neil Young on several tracks. The album drew strong reviews, prompting Jones to tour across the United States, Europe, and the U.K. He followed in 2011 with The Road from Memphis, recorded in collaboration with the Roots. Returning to Stax, now under the Concord umbrella, Jones issued the guest-filled Sound the Alarm in 2013. After a period of relative quiet he reemerged in 2019 with Note by Note and the memoir Time Is Tight: My Life, Note by Note.
