Ozzie Jones
Composer & Music Consultant
Ozzie Jones was born in West Philadelphia on September 6th, 1970. He was born into a family of educators, academics, and community leaders. Mr. Jones’ professional journey of a life creating, performing, and teaching theater began in as a student at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine from 1988 to 1992, where he received a High Honors BA in Theater with a secondary concentration in Political Science. At Bates he both studied under, and was mentored by, American theater legends Buddy Butler, Paul Carter Harrison, William Pope.L, and Ntozake Shange.
Ozzie “Old Man” Jones along with Larry “Mr. Cisum” Fowler Jr., and Jared “Grand Agent” Taylor started the hip hop group NAME. NAME went on to become one of the central figures in the Neo Soul and underground Hip hop scene in Philadelphia which produced stars like DJ Drama, Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, and The Roots. The records released by NAME within the years of 1995 and 2000 include, Mohammed Ali, Black Thought, Artist of the Yeah (Featuring Poor Righteous Teachers and Schooly D), Twelve, Logic, and By Design by Grand Agent featuring Ozzie “Old Man” Jones, and Get off of they Dick produced by Culture Freedom. NAME has toured throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada.
Mr. Jones wrote, composed, produced, and performed the album Slut Rock for the artist NOU on One Little Indian Records in London. Mr. Jones performed the music with the band in London and Paris from 2000 to 2002. The song, Coochie Time, is featured in the 2014 Spike Lee film Da Sweet Blood of Jesus.
Currently Mr. Jones is developing a large series of plays on Jazz called, The Real Book. He has directed staged readings of two of the plays in the Real Book series; Chasin’ the Bird by Ozzie Jones at Penumbra Theater in Saint Paul Minnesota and Kind of Blue by Ozzie Jones for an African Continuum Theater at Arena Stage in Washington, DC and a full production at the Freedom Theater in Philadelphia. Mr. Jones has just completed writing a road gang and cotton field hollers opera called, Gwine Dig a Hole.