Jamie Jones

Jamie Jones was immediately thrust into the popular music spotlight in 1994 as the lead singer on All-4-One's smash cover of "So Much in Love" and their even bigger follow-up, "I Swear" (that year's biggest single). However, after the group's modestly successful And the Music Speaks album, All-4-One began a slide from the popular music peak at which it had so quickly arrived. The group continued performing and recording for nearly another decade, but had virtually no chart success with its subsequent releases through 2004.

During this period, Jones and his wife, Hanna, began raising three children and became involved in religious and charitable work, most notably the Los Angeles Mission, an organization working to increase opportunity and eradicate homelessness in the area. Jones also began working on what he calls making himself a "triple threat" -- spending more time writing songs and forming his own production company (with friends Jason Pennock and Jack Kugell) called The Heavyweights, the result of which has been a growing role providing songs for other artists from Martina McBride to Jim Brickman.

While still continuing to tour with All-4-One, in 2003 Jones began working on solo performances and quietly released his debut album, Illuminate, in 2004. While each All-4-One album included one Gospel track, Illuminate was a full modern Gospel album, directly hearkening back to Jones' church background but set to modern R&B and Urban Adult Contemporary sound. Jones followed in 2005 with Jamie Jones, a reworking of Illuminate that also included a couple great new cuts, most notably "Don't Stop," a track that featured guest vocalists William Cartwright and comedian/singer Wayne Brady. It was one of the best adult soul songs of the year and brought deserved attention to the project.

Jones continued his development as a writer and producer over the next several years, helping Brady on his successful debut album, Long Time Comin' and also a long awaited new album by All-4-One, No Regrets, which turned out to be the group's best. Jones continues to perform around the world with All-4-One.

By Chris Rizik