Jones is content with place in music history

Kirk Baird

Friday, June 7, 2002 | 10:20 a.m.

Who: Howard Jones.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Where: House of Blues at Mandalay Bay.

Admission: $20, $25.

Information: (702) 632-7600.

In the early '80s keyboard virtuoso Howard Jones was a musical pioneer.

It has taken nearly 20 years for many music critics to learn that for themselves. Jones, who performs Saturday at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, was one of the first pop artists to discard the conventional group configuration fix and step out solo in front of a wall of keyboards.

Now, with the advent of technology, one-man bands are common.

But in the '80s, even with hits such as "What is Love?" "Things Can Only Get Better" and "No One is to Blame," critics and many musicians were none too kind to Jones.

"Button-pusher" and "music programmer" were common insults lobbed the keyboardist's way.

"Basically, when you do something new, if you're arrogant and artsy about stuff, that's fine. But if you're polite, you get hammered, especially in England," said the 47-year-old Brit during a recent interview from his home in Maidenhead, England. "And that's fine, I'm not going to change for anyone.

"People didn't understand," he said. "Because they didn't understand, they decided I was rubbish. Look what's happened afterwards. That's the price you pay when you do something new and different. But then you have the last laugh later on."

Only, as Jones alluded, he is much too polite to laugh at his critics. Instead, he busies himself in his home studio or with touring. He also produces other artists, such as 19-year-old singer-guitarist Martin Grech, through his own record label, dtox.

Jones also has changed since his videos made the rounds on MTV. Gone is the big hair and colorful outfits. These days his 'do is of the short-cropped variety and his clothes are standard middle-age issue.

And he has all but abandoned the one-man band, for a more traditional rock-group look. Throughout most of the last decade, Jones incorporated a guitarist, bassist, drummer and even backup singers.

He continued with the new format until the recent suicide of his drummer, Kevin Wilkinson, forced a change.

"It was a sad event. I had a really amazing band. I had a conventional band -- guitars, bass, drums and I was playing keyboards. I felt it was impossible to replace him, he was such a wonderful man," Jones said.

For the few upcoming shows Jones has scheduled -- "it's a jaunt, rather than a tour," he joked -- the singer put together a three-piece outfit: a guitarist and backing vocalist, with Jones supplying all other instruments necessary from his keyboards.

"I only recently went back to my electronic roots, which is what I'm doing at the moment," he said. "It's one of the reasons I can do these dates."

Jones said, in addition to being cheaper than hiring a full band, being a keyboardist has also gotten easier when it comes to touring.

"Things are more powerful and smaller and lighter," he said. "Obviously the computer is a laptop and weighs only a few pounds. They were great big in 1985. Even the headset I wear -- the quality of the microphone -- is much better. (Technology has) moved forward and it's great to take advantage of it."

For his part, Jones said he knew this would all happen -- that technology would continue to play a bigger role in music, even when others in the music industry discredited his music ability in the '80s.

"With technology getting cheaper and cheaper, people could make symphonic compositions at home on their laptop. That has happened," Jones said. "I saw it as the main benefit, it makes (creating music) more accessible to ordinary people."

The easier access, in large part, helped birth electronic music. Although popular in Europe and elsewhere around the globe, electronic music has never flourished in the United States the way many in the industry predicted it would in the late '90s.

"I think the reason for (that) ... is the thought there was no personality behind it. The people who made the music weren't interested in being known. The public, especially the American public, don't have anything to latch onto, or get into and follow. And I think that's really important in rock and pop music," Jones said.

"The people in my era, that started in the '80s, they were electronic, but they had a personality and a philosophy. And I think that's why (electronic music) has never taken off in America. There're pockets of it, but it's never crossed into the mainstream."

But Jones is quick to dimiss notions he is solely an electronic-minded musician.

"I love everything ... the more variety the better," he said. "We have to support traditional as well as forward thinking. I happen to be working in the electronic field. But I had a very classical musical training. I went to music school and played the piano. In fact, my favorite instrument is the grand piano."