1) Christopher Paul Jones, credited on albums as Chris Jones, (November 11, 1958 - September 13, 2005) was an American musician (guitars, vocals) and composer. He was born in Reno, Nevada, but lived in Germany ever since he had joined the U.S. Army for three years.
At the age of five, Jones began playing the guitar. A few years later, he decided to become a professional musician and when he was 11 years old, he got admitted to a program at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland. There he discovered the idol of his younger years, Johann Sebastian Bach, to whom he dedicated his Sonata in D. For this sonata, Jones was awarded the conservatory's Young Composer of the Year award.
Shortly thereafter, he discovered the blues and started listening to Robert Johnson, James Taylor and Little Feat.
In 1976, Jones joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in Adenine's, Germany. During this time, the foundation for his musical career in Europe was laid. Over the following decades, he played guitar on albums of artists like Sara K., Allan Taylor and Reinhard Mey. He also toured and recorded solo and with the Blues harp musician Steve Baker.
In August 2005, Jones was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in an advanced stage. He died on September 13, 2005, in Northeim, Germany.
Like many American musicians, he did not have any health insurance and was not able to pay the hospital fees, but friends and other musicians helped him out either personally or by staging charity concerts.
In 2000, Chris began to return to the states on a regular basis to visit various ailing family members, starting with his brother, Jan, who died shortly after. When Chris was on the east coast he would stay with friend Darin D'Onofrio and along with many shows at Darin's club, Otter Point Station, he would also play house concerts. With Allen Taylor, Chris played The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, amazing many of DC's elite with his ability to use a guitar to produce pure emotion. "If this is the end of the line, you ain't gonna hear me cryin', cause it's been a damn good run!" Christopher Paul Jones 2005
2) A young ?Liverpoolian?s? lifestyle as one would expect, is most passionate about football and music. Chris Jones as a youngster grew up in such environment and discovered early on that music for him is more than lifestyle, it is his destiny in life.
Chris talents as singer and songwriter emerged at school, writing rock songs with one of his pals. Soon they formed a local band and started to play gigs and small tours.
What came next was kind of unexpected.
Roger Shah (FKA DJ Shah), had left a message on Chris? My Space page.
Roger, who had found Chris on My Space, was intrigued by his voice, and after a few creative sessions, the foundations of the massive hit ?Going Wrong? were laid, which was brought to life by Armin van Buuren ( No 1DJ in the world) who released the track on his album ?Imagine?.
Robert Westerholt of Within Temptation, who was invited by Armin van Buuren?s to a concert, as Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation) performed ?In and Out Of Love? with Armin, had already noticed the great voice on ?Going Wrong? in Armin?s studio, was introduced to Chris Jones that evening.
Robert Westerholt: ?When the two of us talked about our favorite music, it became clear that we have a lot of similar ideas in respect to songwriting and we decided to meet and check out, how it would be to write together?.
Chris teamed up with Robert and producer Daniel Gibson and together they started writing and recording demo?s.The first few sessions were already promising and brought to light a sound and style that Chris had been looking for all this time.
Chris Jones: ?It was amazing, it really clicked creatively and my voice would just fit very naturally to the melodic rock tunes we had written?.
As it happened, Within Temptation had a new acoustic album in production and a new song ?Utopia? was chosen to be the leading single for the release. When Sharon heard more demos from Chris Jones she knew immediately their voices would match perfectly to make ?Utopia? a great duet.
?Utopia? will introduce Chris Jones as a great new artist.The video for ?Utopia? has already earned major scores on www.youtube.com in its first week and the song is starting to rack up major airplay around Europe.
Chris Jones: "As a new artist I am thrilled and thankful that I got the chance to introduce myself as a duet partner of Sharon den Adel in Within Temptation?s new single ?Utopia?.
www.sellaband.com gives me the opportunity to fulfill my dream of recording my own album. I can?t wait to get started".