Durand Jones

LOUISIANA SOUL

“We’d drive to gigs, smoking blunts, listening to Herbie Hancock.” DURAND JONES

What music are you currently grooving to?

Stevie Wonder’s Hotter Than July, over and over. It’s such an extensive, genre-bending album. Soulful and rock’n’roll grooves, dance, country, reggaeton, beautiful ballads… and Happy Birthday! That record shows me how extensive I can be too. What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? Right now, Dionne Warwick’s Just Being Myself. She’d just left Bacharach and David and was trying things that felt true to her soul. It’s got beautiful ballads – if I had to listen to one song every day, it would be You Are The Heart Of Me. I also relate to the title track. And I can dance to You’re Gonna Need Me. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?

Jay-Z’s The Blueprint, at Walmart in Gonzalez, Louisiana. I begged my dad to buy it for me ’cos I loved that tune (starts singing) “I love girls, girls, girls, girls…” I was only six or seven. Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be?

This is weird to say ’cos I’m a dude, but Whitney Houston circa the late’80s to the mid-’90s. Her voice could do whatever she wanted it to do. Saxophone-wise, either Cannonball [Adderley] or Sonny Stitt. What do you sing in the shower? Right now, Lately by Stevie Wonder. What is your favourite Saturday night record?

I Thought It Was You by Herbie Hancock. When I was living in New Orleans, me and my good friend Miles would drive to gigs, smoking blunts, listening to that one. The perfect way to start the night.

And your Sunday morning record? Nearer My God To Thee by Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers – the live version. It’s before his soulful crooner stage, he’s still getting gritty and he drives and pushes it so hard. The girls are just going crazy for Sam! He just takes it there.