hypersongs

Grace Jones

A Jamaican-born model, actress and singer who moved from Parisian fashion to Philadelphia disco and then, with Chris Blackwell and the Compass Point band, made Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and "Pull Up to the Bumper".

Paris, Philadelphia and Compass Point

Grace Beverly Jones was born in Spanish Town, Saint Catherine, Jamaica, on May 19, 1948, was raised in a strict Pentecostal household, and later lived near Syracuse, New York, where she studied Spanish at Onondaga Community College. In her twenties she used the name Grace Mendoza to hide go-go dancing from her parents. In 1970 she moved to Paris after signing with Wilhelmina Models in New York, modelling for Yves Saint Laurent, Claude Montana and Kenzo Takada and photographed by Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin and Hans Feurer.

From 1974 she was signed to Island and made disco records with the producer Tom Moulton at Sigma Sound in Philadelphia, Portfolio (September 6, 1977), Fame (June 10, 1978) and Muse (September 4, 1979), and was known as the Queen of the Gay Discos. The Compass Point trilogy followed, Warm Leatherette (May 9, 1980), Nightclubbing (May 11, 1981) and Living My Life (November 7, 1982), the first two produced by Chris Blackwell and Alex Sadkin at Compass Point Studios in Nassau with the studio's house band, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Wally Badarou, Mikey Chung, Barry Reynolds and Uziah Thompson. Warm Leatherette reached number 45 in the UK, and "Private Life" was her first UK chart entry. With Jean-Paul Goude she devised the stage show A One Man Show, released on video in 1982 and nominated for a Grammy for best video album in 1984.

Films and later records

Her film debut was Conan the Destroyer (1984), followed by A View to a Kill (1985, as May Day), Vamp (1986) and Boomerang (1992). Slave to the Rhythm (October 28, 1985) was a concept album produced by Trevor Horn with Ian McShane voice-overs, originally intended for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and reached 12 in the UK; Inside Story (1986) and Bulletproof Heart (1989) followed. Albums from the 1990s were shelved, among them Black Marilyn (1994) and Force of Nature (1998, with Tricky), and in 1997 she toured in a revival of The Wiz. Hurricane (November 3, 2008, Wall of Sound), her first new material in 19 years, reached number 42 in the UK; the Guardian's Alexis Petridis found it runs out of puff after a strong first half.

She published I'll Never Write My Memoirs, with Paul Morley, on September 29, 2015, and appears on Gorillaz's "Charger" (2017) and Beyonce's "Move" (2022); the documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami appeared in 2017. She received the Order of Jamaica in 2018, curated the Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre in London from June 10, 2022, and headlined Bluedot in July 2023. The first art exhibition centred on her was at Nottingham Contemporary in 2020. Annie Lennox, Lorde, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Janelle Monae and Nile Rodgers cite her as an influence.

Albums

  • Nightclubbing 1981 · Island

    Her fifth album: nine songs, mostly covers, from the Compass Point sessions, her highest-charting US album.

Songs

  • Pull Up to the Bumper Nightclubbing · 1981

    The third single from Nightclubbing, a 1981 dance hit that Blackwell held back from Warm Leatherette.

Sources

  1. Grace Jones, Wikipedia
  2. Warm Leatherette (album), Wikipedia
  3. Hurricane (Grace Jones album), Wikipedia
  4. Grace Jones, gracejones.com