By John Voket

As an aspiring young musician, Howard Jones emerged from the early '80s UK music scene with a much bigger splash than he ever intended to make. The sharp-featured songwriter and accomplished keyboard player who hit the No. 1 on the American charts in 1985 with the infectious sing-along ballad "No One Is To Blame" always hoped a career in music would happen for him.

But Jones, who began playing piano at age two and who was giving piano lessons as an adolescent, quietly floated his first independent single, "New Song," in 1983 to unsuspecting radio audiences never looking back. That single made its way to the number three spot on the UK charts, and the fuse was lit.

Anxious fans awaiting his next offering helped "What Is Love" explode to a number two slot just a few months later, just about the time international audiences fell in love with his honest lyrics and spikey hairstyle during a brief set at the massive Wembley Stadium Live Aid concert playing Freddie Mercury's grand piano just before the set by Queen.

He produced another internationally recognized melody with "Like to Get to Know You Well" in 1984, which became the unofficial anthem of the Los Angeles Olympic Games, and one of the world's first remix records simply entitled The 12-Inch Record. In the ensuing 23 years, Jones continued to enjoy on-again, off-again success on the charts reaching another top position in 1989 with "Everlasting Love" and the popular "Lift Me Up," in 1992.

After being unceremoniously dumped by Warner Bros. after the release of his first greatest hits package, he formed his own label dTox and continued to produce music and tour in various solo, duo, acoustic and electric configurations. Jones will be riding into the Ridgefield Playhouse on Friday, January 19, stripped down to an intimate duo and complimented by the extraordinary talents of long-time guitar collaborator Robin Boult.

On a recent afternoon The Newtown Bee caught up with Mr Jones, who was in chilly Somerset, England, at the time, and chatted about the upcoming US duo tour supporting his most recent dTox release, Revolution of the Heart, his new relationship with VH-1 Classic, music downloading, and his recent opportunity to sparkle in former Beatle Ringo Starr's All-Star Band.

Newtown Bee: Your fans are probably accustomed to seeing you surrounded by banks of synthesizers and being backed by a full compliment of accomplished musicians. But you're coming to Ridgefield Playhouse in a very minimalist setup, albeit with the very capable wingman Robin Boult. What is in store for the audience on this tour, something like a Burt Bacharach show?

Howard Jones: This tour will really highlight the songwriting that I do, as well as giving me much more of an opportunity to chat with the audience. I'l be playing just a single electric piano with Robin, who has been with me for quite a long time and is my exclusive guitar guy. He plays all the guitars on the record who uses the full range of electronic and computerized effects in the full band set, but this show is very low-tech - just an acoustic guitar.

NB: How do you go about readjusting the arrangements down from something like a 20 keyboard rack down to just an electric piano and acoustic guitar?

HJ: I find it highly challenging. It's easier to arrange things on a single piano, but working with Robin, in order to get the biggest sound from two musicians we always need to be playing opposite each other. The rhythms have to be crossing each other, so sometimes he acts like the drumbeat and on other numbers I'm picking up sort of the rhythmic side of the song. It's really a cool way of presenting it for two instruments and it's fun to strip things down like that on occasion.

NB: Speaking of the tour, you just entered into a contract with VH-1 Classic. Where are you hoping to go with that?

HJ: They are supporting the upcoming US acoustic tour, and I'm hoping we'll eventually get to film a full-length TV show where we can combine some performance and interviews - like we're doing on the tour.

NB: Much like in your early days when you released "New Song" independently and seeing it take off, your latest release "Building Our Own Future," has an interesting similarity, except its as a download instead of a 45-rpm vinyl.

HJ: It's an interesting story because I originally wrote it for the last album, Revolution of the Heart, but I really didn't think the track fit in with the rest of the songs on the album. As my career has gone on, I've tried to be disciplined about giving each album its own character not  some absurd eclectic mix of material. But people got to hear it because I'd play it occasionally. So a friend of mine who hosts a podcast asked me if he could use it and I didn't see any harm in that. But the reaction was really incredible. Pretty soon it was spreading to other download sites and it was a number one download for three weeks, which was great. It's an exciting new way of exposing new music to people.

NB: Well it saves us all from having to get out of our pajamas to run down to the record store. We can download Howard Jones in our PJs.

HJ: I've got an interesting perspective on downloading because I've got three kids - a 12-year-old, a 17-year-old and a 20-year-old - and they don't go to record shops anymore. But because the whole spectrum of music is available digitally the things they are downloading are extremely eclectic. Yesterday I found my 12-year-old downloading the soundtrack to Cabaret, and the other day he heard a song on a commercial and went looking for it on line, and it turned out to be "Don't Rain on My Parade."

NB: Your collaborations are well known, but certainly one of the highpoints of your musical careers had to be playing not only as Ringo Starr's keyboard man, but alongside the All-Starr lineup including Ian Hunter, Rodger Hodgeson (of Supertramp) and Greg Lake (of ELP).

HJ: I was very privileged to be in that group, but it also felt really good to represent my '80s generation along with (percussionist) Sheila E. I felt very honored to be let in after Ringo previously only used All-Stars from the '60s and '70s. The arrangement among the players was interesting as well, because each person was the musical director of their own songs - and of course it was important to do it the way they wanted it because they bloody well wrote the song.

One of the biggest thrills for me was playing "Karn Evil 9" from Emerson, Lake and Palmer for Greg Lake. Since there's no chart written for it, it took me like three months to learn it putting four bars at a time into the computer. It was such good fun when we played it, and Keith Emerson actually inspired me to get into music as a keyboard player because he was one of the first ones to make keyboards so exciting.

NB: You're also getting a lot of exposure to a younger audience by having a lot of your work sampled and remixed by club DJs and other artists. How much control can you have over these kind of tributes?

HJ: I find it quite difficult. Not a week goes by when someone doesn't link me to a remix or sample. I am involved with commissioning remixes of my own stuff, but a lot of the material I have no control over is not great. And I sort of gently discourage the ones that don't sound good to me. But then the ones that make you say 'Oh wow!' I really try to get involved, even going as far as re-recording a vocal or a sample if they're having trouble finding it. In any field there are the real artists and there are the ones looking to just have a go at things for the first time and you have to be discriminating about who you work with.

NB: Outside the music biz, what other things are you passionate about?

HJ: I have been practicing Buddhism for the past 13 years, and it's about encouraging people to realize their full potential as a human being. So I just hope everyone realizes how wonderful it is to be alive.