JOJO JEFFERIES BAND

In the earlier years I played with Mike Russell, Ray Sanders, Tony Maharey and Eddie Campbell.  Mike Russell and I had worked together in the past with The Deltones and we also did duet gigs on the side.  The band worked steadily but the concentration was more focused on "cover" material than "original" tunes.  Eventually the group dissolved, we parted ways as friends and I moved on to phase two.  

During the second phase I worked with Freeman Brown, Mark Crawley, Mike Stoker and Grady Gambrell.  Freeman, Grady and I were old friends from The Marvells.  We started incorporating a few original tunes into our set lists and I began thinking about recording a full album.  Mike and Mark were steady as a rock but ironically as fate would have it, when it came time to actually record the debut album, Grady left the band and Freeman moved back to Nashville.  The studio slot was booked and the timing was just horrible!  Fortunately, Chris Craig, Jack Holder, Joe Schicke and Rick Camp stepped in on drums and guitar and helped to see the album, "Three Wishes",  to fruition.  Once the album was finished, I knew that I needed a permanent group to play "live" in order to promote the CD.  Hence came phase three. 

Mike Stoker and Mark Crawley continued to play with me after the album was finished and we brought aboard James Cunningham and Billy Lavender.  Our main sound engineer through the years has been Fred Sluder.  Mike left the band a few years ago to pursue his own Gospel group, Altered.  We can still twist his arm from time to time to do shows with us but he was replaced by Randy Middleton. 

We've all worked together for several years, playing nightclubs, festivals and charitable events and the band has assisted me on many of my recording engineering projects at The University of Memphis.  With each phase of the JoJo Jefferies Band band I have continued to grow as an artist, band leader and songwriter.  Of course I'll never forget the time when Mark Crawley and I were sitting in front of the Memphis Commercial Appeal and "I'm So Free" came on the radio for the first time!  Oh the memories.......there's been so many and I can't thank them enough for their dedication, hard work and all the great times we've had making good music.  I truly hope there will be many more songs and good memories to come.  Thanks guys!

I've included photos of all three phases of The JoJo Jefferies Band in chronological order below.  There are additional photos, videos and audio clips of the present group on the Artist Bio pages.