Call him the Energizer bunny of the synth-pop era.  While peer after peer fell by the wayside during the late '80's and into the '90's, Howard Jones kept right on going.  Some folks talk about his '95/96 "comeback" tour, but hey, this keyboardist never went anywhere.

     He has changed with he times, however.  Gone are the neon duds, spiked hair, and beastly keyboard rigs.   Today, Jones has stripped his music and setup to the bone.  Onstage, it's just him and percussion great Carol Steele.  "I like to surprise people" he tells us.  "I like to present something a little different.  I don't want to be labeled one thing.  I want to be free to do whatever I feel like doing at the time."

        In '95, Jones played nothing but acoustic piano on tour with Steele: the sound was documented in his Live Acoustic America CD on Plump records.  Today, still on tour with the percussionist,  Howard has expanded his rig to include a Yamaha P500, a VL1, a CBX hard disk recorder, and an Apple Powerbook running Opcode's Studio Vision Pro software.

"STRIPS IT TO THE BONE"
Re-print of an article found in "Keyboard"
magazine, August, 1996.



photo property of Keyboard Magazine

"At the moment,  I'm into elegant, small setups," he says.  "I'm not using any MIDI.  It's just live playing mixed with hard disk data.  I'm running three channels: a stereo loop and bass.  It's somewhat of an experiment, 'cause I've never used hard disk recording on the road.  I use Digidesign Pro Tools so much at home, now more than ever, I wanted to make sure it could be taken out of the studio and onto the road."    But why not go the easy route and use DAT tracks?  "See, the great thing about having the hard disk on the road is that you can edit.  That's why in the past I always had everything out on the road with me -- so I could change things If I needed."

Those who've struggled with Apple Powerbooks in music situations might wince at Jones' choice of live computer.  "well, we're taking it step by step," he says.  "I'm running studio vision Pro, which I'm a big fan of, and it's been working fine.  And then I take my Powerbook away from stage and get on the internet with it.  It's like a multi-purpose thing.  It's also got my lyrics in it as well.

A highlight of Howard's show comes when he straps on the headset and gives his Yamaha VL1 a blowing, as he did so masterfully at Keyboard's 20th Anniversary Concert last year.  "I've got a thing for the VL1," he confides, "because, to me, it was the biggest breakthrough in synths in a long time.   It's just so incredibly expressive.  With all of the controls, and the breath control.... Since I'm a singer, I'm used to doing all kinds of things with my voice.   I'm used to controlling my breath, and articulating things with my mouth.  The VL1 is perfect for me in that respect."

Back in 1985,  Howard seemed far away from doing an all-piano project, telling us "I love playing the piano,   the only problem is it can be a little cliche.  If you're a musician in the '80's,  you should be trying to push things forward, rather than just sticking to the old traditional tried-and-tested methods."  Today, after doing an all piano tour and live record,  he obviously has a different take.  "Well, I mean, certainly if you're making a studio album, I would still agree with that.  But live is a different thing."

Speaking of the studio,  Howard is already churning tracks for his next record (to be called "Angels and Lovers".    His approach this time around is to narrow the cast of characters and stick religiously to them.  The characters, in this case, consist of "dull, grainy drum loops, a Juno-60 bass patch, Miroslav Vitous sampled strings, acoustic and electric guitars, and lots of layered vocals -- all recorded into Pro Tools and Studio Vision Pro.   It's very dry, hardly any reverb at all, and no EQ.  It's quite acoustic sounding,  but with that '90's loop element."   Look for it in late '96 on the Plump label.
--- Greg Rule