Most musicians acknowledge their influences by performing their mentors’ material, or maybe writing a new song in an old master’s style and dedicating it to him. Fernando Jones goes farther: he puts together a day-long blues festival and hires his teachers to play there.
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Big brother Foree used to take Jones down to Theresa’s, and the boy’s eyes were widened by the exhilarating music and exotically smoky atmosphere. His horizons were widened as well; at Theresa’s he came into contact with whites and others from outside the neighborhood. Jones says that meeting these musical pilgrims led him to understand the richness of his own cultural heritage. “We weren’t raised in a racist kind of family,” Jones remembers, “but I guess that’s the first time I saw white people; at a young age, I was [made] aware that that was a black area.”
By the time he graduated in 1987, Jones had already organized several on-campus blues shows featuring artists like Junior Wells and Buddy Guy. He had also cultivated a commitment to black education: he tried, but failed, to launch a campus newsletter to be titled the Student News Service, and he succeeded in organizing Black Art Students for Success, funding and publicizing its efforts through concerts, dances, and bake sales.
“Young black folks do not know what blues is; we as a people have our tastes dictated to us. It’s kind of sad; once black folks see white people enjoying something, young black folks, they say, ‘Oh, well this is OK; if it’s cool for them, I’m going to go check it out; I know white folks wouldn’t support nothing unless it’s cool.’ It’s sickening!
