Celebrity Graveland

June 13, 1934 – March 24, 2009

As a drummer for the legendary house band, the Funk Brothers, Uriel Jones played on many of Motown Records’ biggest hits of the 1960s. From “Ain’t to Proud to Beg” and “I Can’t Get Next to You” by the Temptations, to Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life”, Jones’ smooth and funky rhythm came to be a staple in the exploding R&B scene out of Detroit.

Jones started out as a trombone player as well as a boxer. When he realized the latter often made the former difficult due to swollen lips, he made the switch to drums. As with the rest of the Funk Brothers, Jones remained relatively anonymous and uncredited for most of his early career. Still, his unmistakable sound can be heard on recordings from all the greats like Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye. Uriel Jones continued playing drums for decades in and out of the spotlight. He died following a heart attack in 2009 at the age of 74.

Burial

Woodlawn Cemetery – Detroit, MI

Specific Location

Section 35 – At the northwest corner of the cemetery, right where the road turns south, look into Section 35 and locate a red marble bench with the name JENKINS on it. Uriel is buried just beyond this bench.

This entry was posted on October 31, 2022 at 9:19 am and is filed under Woodlawn Cemetery (MI) with tags Funk Brothers, Motown, Musicians, Woodlawn Cemetery (MI). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.