Grace Jones was born in 1948 (though most sources say 1952)[4][14][15][16] in Spanish Town, Jamaica, to Marjorie (née Williams) (1927–2017)[17][18] and Robert W. Jones (1925–2008),[19] who was a local politician and Apostolic clergyman.[20][21][22][23] The couple already had two children, and would go on to have four more.[24] Robert and Marjorie moved to the East Coast of the United States,[24] where Robert worked as an agricultural labourer until a spiritual experience during a suicide attempt inspired him to become a Pentecostal minister.[25] While they were in the US, they left their children with Marjorie's mother and her new husband, Peart.[26] Jones knew him as "Mas P" ('Master P') and later noted that she "absolutely hated him"; as a strict disciplinarian he regularly beat the children in his care, representing what Jones described as "serious abuse".[27] She was raised into the family's Pentecostal faith,[28] having to take part in prayer meetings and Bible readings every night.[29] She initially attended the Pentecostal All Saints School,[30] before being sent to a nearby public school.[31]
As a child, Jones was shy and had only one schoolfriend. She was teased by classmates for her "skinny frame", but she excelled at sports and found solace in the nature of Jamaica.[32]
[My childhood] was all about the Bible and beatings. We were beaten for any little act of dissent, and hit harder the worse the disobedience. It formed me as a person, my choices, men I have been attracted to... It was a profoundly disciplined, militant upbringing, and so in my own way, I am very militant and disciplined. Even if that sometimes means being militantly naughty, and disciplined in the arts of subversion.
Marjorie and Robert eventually brought their children – including the 13 year-old Grace – to live with them in the US, where they had settled in Lyncourt, Salina, New York, near Syracuse.[34][35] It was in the city that her father had established his own ministry, the Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ, in 1956.[36] Jones continued her schooling and after she graduated, enrolled at Onondaga Community College majoring in Spanish.[37][38] Jones began to rebel against her parents and their religion; she began wearing makeup, drinking alcohol, and visiting gay clubs with her brother.[39] At college, she also took a theatre class, with her drama teacher convincing her to join him on a summer stock tour in Philadelphia.[40][38] Arriving in the city, she decided to stay there, immersing herself in the Counterculture of the 1960s by living in hippie communes, earning money as a go-go dancer, and using LSD and other drugs.[41] She later praised the use of LSD as "a very important part of my emotional growth... The mental exercise was good for me".[42]
She moved back to New York at 18 and signed on as a model with Wilhelmina Models. She moved to Paris in 1970.[38][43] The Parisian fashion scene was receptive to Jones's unusual, androgynous, bold, dark-skinned appearance. Yves St. Laurent, Claude Montana, and Kenzo Takada hired her for runway modelling, and she appeared on the covers of Elle, Vogue, and Stern working with Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, and Hans Feurer.[44] Jones also modelled for Azzedine Alaia, and was frequently photographed promoting his line. While modelling in Paris, she met Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange. Hall and Jones frequented Le Sept, one of Paris's most popular gay clubs of the 1970s and 1980s, and socialised with Giorgio Armani and Karl Lagerfeld.[45] In 1973, Jones appeared on the cover of a reissue of Billy Paul's 1970 album Ebony Woman.
1974–1979: Transition to music, and early releases
In 1978, Jones and Moulton made Fame, an immediate follow-up to Portfolio, also recorded at Sigma Sound Studios. The album featured another reinterpretation of a French classic, "Autumn Leaves" by Jacques Prévert. The Canadian edition of the vinyl album included another French language track, "Comme un oiseau qui s'envole", which replaced "All on a Summers Night"; in most locations this song served as the B-side of the single "Do or Die". In the North American club scene, Fame was a hit album and the "Do or Die"/"Pride"/"Fame" side reached top 10 on both the US Hot Dance Club Play and Canadian Dance/Urban charts. The album was released on compact disc in the early 1990s, but soon went out of print. In 2011, it was released and remastered by Gold Legion, a record company that specialises in reissuing classic disco albums on CD.
Jones's live shows were highly sexualized and flamboyant, leading her to be called "Queen of the Gay Discos."[6]
In the same year she was cast in the highly controversial Italian TV program Stryx, aired by Rai 2, where she portrayed the character of Rumstryx.[47][48][49]
Muse was the last of Jones's disco albums. The album features a re-recorded version "I'll Find My Way to You", which Jones released three years prior to Muse. Originally appearing in the 1976 Italian film, Colt 38 Special Squad in which Jones had a role as a club singer, Jones also recorded a song called "Again and Again" that was featured in the film. Both songs were produced by composer Stelvio Cipriani. Icelandic keyboardist Thor Baldursson arranged most of the album and also sang duet with Jones on the track "Suffer". Like the last two albums, the cover art is by Richard Bernstein. Like Fame, Muse was later released by Gold Legion.
1980–1985: Breakthrough, Nightclubbing, and acting
Nightclubbing claimed the number 1 slot on NME's Album of the Year list.[55]Slant Magazine listed the album at No. 40 on its list of Best Albums of the 1980s.[56]Nightclubbing is now widely considered Jones's best studio album.[57] The album's cover art is a painting of Jones by Jean-Paul Goude. Jones is presented as a man wearing an Armani suit jacket, with a cigarette in her mouth and a flattop haircut. While promoting the album, Jones slapped chat-show host Russell Harty live on air after he had turned to interview other guests, making Jones feel she was being ignored.[58]
Having already recorded two reggae-oriented albums under the production of Compass Point All Stars, Jones went to Nassau, Bahamas in 1982 and recorded Living My Life; the album resulted in Jones's final contribution to the Compass Point trilogy, with only one cover, Melvin Van Peebles's "The Apple Stretching". The rest were original songs; "Nipple to the Bottle" was co-written with Sly Dunbar, and, apart from "My Jamaican Guy", the other tracks were collaborations with Barry Reynolds. Despite receiving a limited single release, the title track was left off the album. Further session outtakes included "Man Around the House" (Jones, Reynolds) and a cover of "Ring of Fire", written by June Carter Cash and Merle Kilgore and popularized by Johnny Cash, both of which were included on the 1998 compilation Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions. The album's cover art resulted from another Jones/Goude collaboration; the artwork has been described as being as famous as the music on the record.[59] It features Jones's disembodied head cut out from a photograph and pasted onto a white background. Jones's head is sharpened, giving her head and face an angular shape.[60] A piece of plaster is pasted over her left eyebrow, and her forehead is covered with drops of sweat.
Jones's three albums under the production of the Compass Point All Stars resulted in Jones's One Man Show, a performance art/pop theatre presentation devised by Goude and Jones in which she also performed tracks from the albums Portfolio ("La Vie en rose"), Warm Leatherette, ("Private Life", "Warm Leatherette"), Nightclubbing ("Walking in the Rain", "Feel Up", "Demolition Man", "Pull Up to the Bumper" and "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)") and from Living My Life, "My Jamaican Guy" and the album's title track. Jones dressed in elaborate costumes and masks (in the opening sequence as a gorilla) and alongside a series of Grace Jones lookalikes. A video version, filmed live in London and New York City and completed with some studio footage, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Long-Form Music Video the following year.[61]
After Jones's success as a mainstream actress, she returned to the studio to work on Slave to the Rhythm, the last of her recordings for Island. Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow, Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn wrote the material, and it was produced by Horn and Lipson. It was a concept album that featured several interpretations of the title track. The project was originally intended for Frankie Goes to Hollywood as a follow-up to "Relax", but was given to Jones.[64] All eight tracks on the album featured excerpts from a conversation with Jones, speaking about many aspects of her life. The interview was conducted by journalist Paul Morley. The album features voice-overs from actor Ian McShane reciting passages from Jean-Paul Goude's biography Jungle Fever. Slave to the Rhythm was successful in German-speaking countries and in the Netherlands, where it secured Top 10 placings. It reached number 12 on the UK Albums Chart in November 1985 and became the second-highest-ranking album released by Jones.[65][66] Jones earned an MTV Video Music Award nomination for the title track's music video.
After her success with Slave to the Rhythm, Island released Island Life, Jones's first best-of compilation, which featured songs from most of her releases with Island (Portfolio, Fame, Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing, Living My Life and Slave to the Rhythm). American writer and journalist Glenn O'Brien wrote the essay for the inlay booklet. The compilation charted in the UK, New Zealand and the United States.[67] The artwork on the cover of the compilation was of another Jones/Goude collaboration; it featured Jones's celestial body in a montage of separate images, following Goude's ideas on creating credible illusions with his cut-and-paint technique. The body position is anatomically impossible.[68]
The artwork, a piece called "Nigger Arabesque" was originally published in the New York magazine in 1978, and was used as a backdrop for the music video of Jones's hit single "La Vie en rose".[69] The artwork has been described as "one of pop culture's most famous photographs".[70] The image was also parodied in Nicki Minaj's 2011 music video for "Stupid Hoe", in which Minaj mimicked the pose.[71]
After Slave to the Rhythm and Island Life, Jones started to record again under a new contract with Manhattan Records, which resulted in Inside Story, Jones teamed up with music producer Nile Rodgers of Chic, whom Jones had previously tried to work with during the disco era.[72] The album was recorded at Skyline Studios in New York and post-produced at Atlantic Studios and Sterling Sound. Inside Story was the first album Jones produced, which resulted in heated disputes with Rodgers. Musically, the album was more accessible than her previous albums with the Compass Point All Stars, and explored different styles of pop music, with undertones of jazz, gospel, and Caribbean sounds. All songs on the album were written by Jones and Bruce Woolley. Richard Bernstein teamed up with Jones again to provide the album's artwork. Inside Story made the top 40 in several European countries. The album was Jones's last entry to date on US Billboard 200 albums chart. The same year, Jones starred as Katrina, an Egyptian queen vampire in the vampire filmVamp. For her work in the film, Jones was awarded a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.
1990–2004: Boomerang, soundtracks, and collaborations
In 1990, Jones appeared as herself in the documentary, Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol. 1992 saw Jones starring as Helen Strangé, in the Eddie Murphy film Boomerang, for which she also contributed the song "7 Day Weekend" to its soundtrack. Jones released two more soundtrack songs in 1992; "Evilmainya", recorded for the film Freddie as F.R.O.7, and "Let Joy and Innocence Prevail" for the film Toys. In 1994, she was due to release an electro album titled Black Marilyn with artwork featuring the singer as Marilyn Monroe. "Sex Drive" was released as the first single in September 1993, but the album was shelved due to Jones disliking the mixes that were presented by producers, whom she felt were primarily interested in sampling and had "minced" her vocals. Jones stated that the experience turned her off working on music.[73] The track "Volunteer", recorded during the same sessions, leaked in 2009.[74] In 1995, Jones reunited with Tom Moulton for a disco-house take on Candi Staton's 1978 song "Victim", however, the song's release was cancelled by Island Records.[75][76]
In 1996, Jones released "Love Bites", an up-tempo electronic track to promote the Sci-Fi Channel'sVampire Week, which consisted of a series of vampire-themed films aired on the channel in early November 1996. The track features Jones singing from the perspective of a vampire. The track was released as a non-label promo-only single. As of 2013[update], it had not been made commercially available.[77]
In June 1998, Jones was scheduled to release an album titled Force of Nature, on which she worked with trip hop musician Tricky.[78] The release of Force of Nature was cancelled due to a disagreement between the two, and only a white label 12" single featuring two dance mixes of "Hurricane" was issued at the time;[79] a slowed-down version of this song became the title track of her comeback album released ten years later while another unreleased track from the album, "Clandestine Affair" (recycling the chorus from her unreleased 1993 track "Volunteer"), appeared on a bootleg 12" in 2004.[80] Jones recorded the track "Storm" in 1998 for the movie The Avengers, and in 1999, appeared in an episode of the Beastmaster television series as the Umpatra Warrior.
The same year, Jones recorded "The Perfect Crime", an up-tempo song for Danish TV written by the composer duo Floppy M. aka Jacob Duus and Kåre Jacobsen. Jones was also ranked 82nd place on VH1's "100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll".[citation needed] In 2000, Jones collaborated with rapper Lil' Kim, appearing on the song "Revolution" from her album The Notorious K.I.M..[81] In 2001, Jones starred in the film, Wolf Girl (also known as Blood Moon), as an intersex circus performer named Christoph/Christine. In 2002, Jones joined Luciano Pavarotti on stage for his annual Pavarotti and Friends fundraiser concert to support the United Nations refugee agency's programs for Angolan refugees in Zambia. In November 2004, Jones sang "Slave to the Rhythm" at a tribute concert for record producer Trevor Horn at London's Wembley Arena.[82][83]
2008–2015: Hurricane and memoir
Despite several comeback attempts throughout the 1990s, Jones's next full-length record was released almost twenty years later, after Jones decided "never to do an album again,"[84] changing her mind after meeting music producer Ivor Guest through a mutual friend, millinerPhilip Treacy. After the two became acquainted, Guest let Jones listen to a track he had been working on, which became "Devil in My Life", once Jones set the lyrics to the song. The lyrics to the song were written after a party in Venice.[85]
The album was released on Wall of Sound on 3 November 2008, in the United Kingdom. PIAS, the umbrella company of Wall of Sound, distributed Hurricane worldwide excluding North America.[87] The album scored 72 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic.[88] Prior to the album's release, Jones performed at Massive Attack's Meltdown festival in London on 19 June 2008, Jones performed four new songs from the album and premiered the music video which Jones and artist Nick Hooker collaborated on, which resulted in "Corporate Cannibal".[89][90][91] Jones promoted the album even further by appearing on talk show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, performed at several awards galas, and embarked on The Hurricane Tour. The same year, Jones was honoured with Q Idol Award.
In 2009, Chris Cunningham produced a fashion shoot for Dazed & Confused using Jones as a model to create "Nubian versions" of Rubber Johnny.[92] In an interview for BBC's The Culture Show, it was suggested that the collaboration may expand into a video project. Jones also worked with the avant-garde poet Brigitte Fontaine on a duet named "Soufi" from Fontaine's album Prohibition released in 2009, and produced by Ivor Guest.
In March 2010 Jones performed for guests at the 18th annual Elton John AIDS FoundationAcademy Award Viewing Party. The Elton John AIDS Foundation is one of the world's leading nonprofit organisations supporting HIV prevention programs, and works to eliminate the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS. The event raised US$3.7 million.[93][94] The same year, a budget DVD version of A One Man Show was released, as Grace Jones – Live in Concert. It included three bonus video clips ("Slave to the Rhythm", "Love Is the Drug" and "Crush".
In 2011, Jones collaborated again with Brigitte Fontaine on two tracks from her release entitled L'un n'empêche pas l'autre and performed at the opening ceremony of the 61st FIFA Congress.[95] Jones released a dub version of the album, Hurricane – Dub, which came out on 5 September 2011. The dub versions were made by Ivor Guest, with contributions from Adam Green, Frank Byng, Robert Logan and Ben Cowan.
In April 2012, Jones joined Deborah Harry, Bebel Gilberto, and Sharon Stone at the Inspiration Gala in São Paulo, Brazil, raising $1.3 million for amfAR (the Foundation for AIDS Research). Jones closed the evening with a performance of "La Vie en Rose" and "Pull Up to the Bumper".[96] Two months later, Jones performed "Slave to the Rhythm" at the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II (whilst keeping a hula hoop spinning round her waist throughout), and the Lovebox Festival.[97] On 27 October 2012, Jones performed her only North American show of 2012, a performance at New York City's Roseland Ballroom.[98] The same year, Jones presented Sir Tom Jones with not only the GQ Men of the Year award, but her underwear. Tom Jones accepted the gift in good humour, and replied by saying, "I didn't think you wore any".[99]
Universal Music Group released a deluxe edition of her Nightclubbing album as a two-disc set and Blu-ray audio on 28 April 2014. The set contains most of the 12" mixes of singles from that album, plus two previously unreleased tracks from the Nightclubbing sessions, including a cover of the Gary Numan track "Me! I Disconnect from You".
In October 2018, Jones received the Order of Jamaica from the Jamaican government.[103]
In June 2022, Jones served as curator of the 27th edition of the Meltdown Festival, the UK's longest-running artist-curated music festival.[104][105] Jones had been announced as the curator already for the 2020 festival, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was rescheduled to 2022.[106] During her show that closed the festival, Jones announced that a brand new 'African hybrid' record was in production, and previewed "The Sun Shines in Wartime" (or "Sunshine In Wartime) and "Blacker Than Black" (or "Born Black") from the album.[107]
Jones provided guest vocals on Beyoncé's song "Move" from her seventh studio album Renaissance, released in July 2022.[108]
"Grace was very open. We worked together to create this intimidating character. I mean, she's naturally intimidating anyway with her body shape, very straight neck, prominent cheekbones, and clean-cut jawline. She's feminine, no doubt about that, but I've always thought that she was far more beautiful without the artifices she employed to make herself more feminine. I tried to emphasize that body shape through a sort of minimalist German expressionism, with its games of shadows and its angular shapes. Grace is from Jamaica, so she speaks English in a quite thought-out way. I also advised her to address her audience – mostly composed of homosexuals – like a teacher would, with severity. All of that stuff contributed to the building of her image. "
Jones' "appearance was equally divisive" as the sonic fluidity of her music - with her "striking visuals [leading] to her becoming a muse for the likes of Issey Miyake and Thierry Mugler.[114] Her image has been described as "neo-cubist".[115] Jones's distinctive androgynous appearance, square-cut, angular padded clothing, manner, and height of 179 cm (5′ 10+1⁄2″)[citation needed] influenced the cross-dressing movement of the 1980s. To this day, she is known for her unique look at least as much as she is for her music[116] and has been an inspiration for numerous artists, including Annie Lennox,[117]Lorde,[118]Rihanna,[119]Lady Gaga,[120]Nicki Minaj,[121] and Nile Rodgers.[122] Jones was listed as one of the 50 best-dressed over 50 by The Guardian in March 2013.[123]
Kyle Munzenrieder of W magazine wrote that "everyone from Madonna to Björk to Beyoncé to Lady Gaga has taken more than a few pages from her playbook".[124] Jones's work is often discussed for its visual aspect, which was largely the work of French illustrator, photographer, and graphic designer Jean-Paul Goude. According to Jake Hall of i-D, "their collaborative work [went on] to define the visual landscape of the 70s and 80s," and Goude "helped create one of the most intriguing legends in musical history."[114] Goude saw Jones as his muse, declaring she was "beautiful and grotesque at the same time,"[125] and dated her from 1977 to 1984. He "[designed her] album covers, [...] directed her music videos, choreographed live performances, and helped develop her image."[126]
Jones was featured prominently in Goude's work from that period, "which, over the course of the '80s, became increasingly synonymous with willful distortion" - using a technique he refers to as "French correction".[126] The artist stated in 2012: "chopping up photos and rearranging them in a montage to elongate limbs or exaggerate the size of someone's head or some other aspect appealed to me on a lot of levels – I'm always searching for equilibrium, symmetry, and rhythm in an image."[113] Goude's work "centers around artistic depictions of race, ethnicity, and global culture", with an "enchantment with the far-away and the exotic".[114] As a result, much of his depictions of black women are considered controversial and exploitative,[114][125] as Jones was presented as "a white man's rendition of the African feminine."[115] Goude's images depicted her hypersexualized and androgynous, emphasizing her "blackness" and Jamaican heritage. Writer Abigail Gardner felt Jones' body "was presented and manipulated in ways that are clearly congruent with conceiving of that display as artefactual."[115] Essentially, Hall writes, "Goude treated Jones as an artistic vehicle first and foremost - a hyperbole which, despite destroying their personal relationship, allowed Goude to translate his grandiose vision of Jones the phenomenon into a series of imagery which painted her as a surreal, impossible muse."[114]
It has been noted that Jones' ties with the 1970s and 1980s New York art scene are important in understanding her visual identity during this period, and she was close to Andy Warhol, who created a number of paintings and other works of the singer.[127][128] She also knew artist Richard Bernstein, and artist and social activist Keith Haring, who painted her head-to-toe for a series of photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe and for her role in the 1986 film Vamp.[129][130][131][128]
In 2020, the first ever art exhibition centred around Jones was presented at Nottingham Contemporary in the United Kingdom, in an attempt to represent "a multi-faceted pop cultureicon while trying to reformulate an alternative image of Grace Jones that does not fall into clichés."[132]
Music
Vice described Jones's musical output as "weird, vibrant and progressive," stating that she "has woven disco, new wave, post-punk, art pop, industrial, reggae, and gospel into a tight sound that is distinctly hers, threaded together with lilting, powerful vocals."[133] Her early music was rooted in disco. She opted for a new wave sound in the early 1980s. She recorded a series of albums (1980's Warm Leatherette through 1982's Living My Life) backed by the Jamaica rhythm section duo Sly and Robbie. Her music during this era was described as a new wave hybrid of reggae, funk, pop, and rock.[7] According to John Doran of BBC Music, Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing were "post-punk pop" albums that, "delved into the worlds of disco, reggae and funk much more successfully than most of her 'alternative' contemporaries, while still retaining a blank-eyed alienation that was more reminiscent of David Bowie or Ian Curtis than most of her peers."[134]
Jones's father, Bishop Robert W. Jones, was strict and their relationship was strained. According to his particular denomination's beliefs, one should only use one's singing ability to glorify God.[32] He died on 7 May 2008.[21] Her mother, Marjorie, always supported Jones's career (she sings on "Williams' Blood" and "My Jamaican Guy") but could not be publicly associated with her music.[32] Marjorie's father, John Williams, was also a musician[136] and played with Nat King Cole.[32]
Jones described her childhood as having been "crushed underneath the Bible",[37] and since has refused to enter a Jamaican church due to her bad childhood experiences.[137]
Jones used the surname "Mendoza" in her 20s, so that her parents would not know that she was working as a go-go dancer.[138]
Through her relationship with longtime collaborator Jean-Paul Goude, Jones has one son, Paulo, born 12 November 1979. From Paulo, Jones has one granddaughter.[135] Jones married Atila Altaunbay in 1996. She disputes rumors that she married Chris Stanley in her 2015 memoir I'll Never Write My Memoirs, saying, "The truth is, I only ever married one of my boyfriends, Atila Altaunbay, a Muslim from Turkey." She spent four years with Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren, her former bodyguard;[139] she got him a part as a KGB officer in A View to a Kill (1985).[140] Jones started dating Danish actor and stuntman Sven-Ole Thorsen in 1990, and was in an open relationship as of 2007.[141]
Jones's brother is megachurch preacher Bishop Noel Jones, who starred on the 2013 reality show Preachers of LA.[142]
"Warm Leatherette" (intro includes excerpts from "Nightclubbing"), "Walking in the Rain", "Feel Up" "La Vie en rose", "Demolition Man", "Pull Up to the Bumper", "Private Life", "My Jamaican Guy", "Living My Life", "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)"
1983
The Video Singles
Includes the videos for "Pull Up to the Bumper", "Private Life" and "My Jamaican Guy", all directed by Jean-Paul Goude.
^Ganatra, Shilpa (28 October 2016). "Grace Jones: 'Carry yourself with class'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 28 November 2023. I don't spend much time in the States even though I have a place in New York and am a US citizen...
^Gardner, Abigail (2016). 'Rock On': Women, Ageing and Popular Music. Routledge. ISBN978-1-138-26141-9. R&B singer Grace Jones who later branched out into disco, reggae and rock.
^Walters, Barry (25 August 2015). "As Much As I Can, As Black As I Am: The Queer History of Grace Jones". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021. Even Moulton buried the hatchet for a 1997 house remake of Candi Staton's "Victim", but Island nixed its release on conceptual grounds: They thought Grace Jones couldn't be a victim of anything.
^"Bluedot Festival 2023 Lineup". discoverthebluedot. Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 20 July 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Interviews, Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews &; Admin (22 June 2010). "10 Things You Never Knew About... Grace Jones". Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews. Retrieved 23 September 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)