Born to play: Jerron Jones’ journey from pan to jazz

Helping run the family business is expected of the children of business owners—an expectation that took a non-traditional turn for musician Jerron Jones, and one that he used as a springboard to launch his own career.

Instead of learning to keep the books or helping to plan and manage events at his parents’ serene, picturesque Arima-based Jenny’s Ranch, a juvenile Jones often served as part of the entertainment line-up as a complimentary service to hundreds of clients who rented the facility.

Now 19, the final-year University of T&T (UTT) music student is studying the saxophone and specialising in jazz. Jones has also provided live entertainment to guests at the Trinidad Hilton and the Brix Hotel, tutored at the Birdsong Music Academy and Pan Elite Steel Orchestra, as well as at other music camps. He and his three siblings formed a band called RamaJ’s D Band, and he has appeared on stages with musicians such as gospel artiste Jaron Nurse and musician Marcus Baptiste. On July 31, he took the spotlight at a jazz event hosted at the ranch, one he hopes will be the first of many.

He and his mother and manager, Jennifer Banfield-Jones, sat with Guardian Media in the very space that helped him develop his musical charisma and reminisced on how it all unfolded. She excitedly showed off his evolution through the volumes of photos and videos she kept on her phone, while he smiled and quietly indulged her.

“My story, strangely enough, began with my brother, who was the one who actually started playing the pan initially. I just used to watch him, but I wasn’t really that interested in it,” Jones recalled.

Unknown to him, though, he had a natural gift that Banfield-Jones noticed when he decided, out of curiosity, to pick up the pan sticks and teach himself the national anthem. Years later, she said, Batiste heard him play and described him as having “perfect pitch”—the rare ability to identify a specific musical note instantly without needing a reference tone.

“I was outside doing decoration, and I heard the anthem playing inside on the pan,” Jennifer Banfield-Jones recalled.

“His brother was outside with me and he (Jerron) had never shown any interest in doing music, even though we tried to encourage him. I walked inside and I asked him, ‘Jerron, who taught you to play the anthem? He said, ‘Nobody. I was just singing the anthem, and I was hitting the pan, and I found the notes,’” which was music to the ears of Banfield-Jones, no pun intended. The years that followed saw her finding ways for her son to become immersed in music at various practical and theoretical levels.

“I started to tap into places to work on his natural ability. I looked for personal tutors for him because I knew he was an introvert and I didn’t want him in a class environment…Eventually, I decided to use what I had—the ranch and doing events. So if someone would come who was doing an event, I would say, ‘On behalf of Jenny’s Ranch, Jerron would provide some entertainment,’” giving him the opportunity to play to develop his musical and social skills, and sometimes earning him some extra cash.

“The ranch has been around since 2013, but me being involved in the music playing was more of a later development. It was really strange, because it started off as our home, and then over time, my mum developed it into this business,” Jones quipped in.

He admitted there was a time when he doubted his talent and only continued doing the music because he felt it was what his mother wanted him to do.

“I used to always say that I wanted to do marine biology. When I reached secondary school, I really wasn’t sure, so I ended up doing sciences thinking I would forge a career out of that,” the Hillview College alumnus recalled.

“I honestly didn’t see the vision, and I was doing it because mummy said I was talented and could play. I think it was around COVID time that I started to build that love for it.”

Now, he said his life revolves around music professionally and personally.

“It’s not like something where I just pick up the instrument, play it and say, ‘It’s time for me to put this down.’ It’s my love.”

Jones excels at the pan and the saxophone, but his musical talent extends beyond them.

“I play the keyboard, the guitar to an extent, and I’ve done the violin in the past. I also like the drums, but I find it a little noisy,” a phobia Banfield-Jones said he has had since a child.

“Jerron was afraid of loud noises; thunder, drilling, anything noisy. He would put his finger in his ear cry when he heard loud noises,” which would probably explain his attraction to the lighter tempos and relaxed tones of jazz—a genre that allows him to improvise, stray from structure and express himself through the music, much like his mentors.

“Anthony Woodroffe, he goes by Tony Paul, he is someone I would have heard from as a child but not really delved into until I went to UTT. And I was like, ‘Oh, this man could really, really play.’ David Goodman, with whom I have had the privilege of working; he’s a great pianist and when you see him play, he’s so expressive, so lively.”

Among his other jazz heroes from whom he draws inspiration are American saxophonists Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins.

And it’s ironic that even though his career puts him in the spotlight, Jones remains an introvert, spending much of his free time wandering around the ranch, exploring like it was all new to him.

“I’m not that much of a people person. I really like to walk a lot, because I realise that whenever I’m thinking about something or I just want to relax, I’ll just find myself walking, just taking in the scenery while I’m thinking.”

His time at UTT, he said, has been a dream, which has yielded a number of networking opportunities. He is still mulling over his next step, which may involve a postgraduate degree or travelling and getting international experience.

“I’m not sure yet.”

But whatever he decides to do, Banfield-Jones is prepared to continue supporting him as his mother and manager.

“He was fortunate enough to have this platform at the ranch, which helped him a lot. My goal is really to just continue to give him that support because I know and see the potential; I’ve seen where it has taken him thus far.”

She said her son could have gone on to be a marine biologist or a doctor and put music second, as many a parent would expect. But it is his life and his career choice to make.

“Most of the time, we as parents want to choose careers for them. But I realise that music is his happy place. Whatever it takes to take him to the next level, I am here to give him that support.”