Blues guitarist Floyd Jones was born in 1917 in Marianna, AR.
Reportedly, he got his first guitar when he was 16 years old from
Howlin' Wolf (aka "Howlin' Wolf"),
and began performing not long after that. He traveled all over the
South in the 1930s and 1940s, playing everywhere from juke joints to
house parties. In the mid-'40s he hooked up with his cousin, musician
Moody Jones, and together they worked the famous Maxwell Street,
playing for tips. They eventually formed their own band and recorded
for several Chicago labels, including Chess and Vee-Jay.
Jones' success was confined mainly to the Chicago area, which he seldom
left after he moved there (in fact, he held a day job throughout most
of his music career, "just in case . . ."). He continued to perform and
occasionally record up until the 1970s. His health began to fail and he
retired in the 1980s, coming out of retirement in 1986 to play with
longtime friend
Smokey Robinson at the
Chicago Blues Festival.
He died of heart failure in Chicago in 1989.