Leslie Ann Jones

Leslie Ann Jones
Leslie Ann Jones at work mixing
Born	United States
Occupation	Recording engineer, record producer
Parent(s)	Spike Jones, Helen Grayco

Leslie Ann Jones is a multiple Grammy Award-winningrecording engineer working as Director of Music Recording and Scoring at Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm, Ltd. company. She is a past Chair of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Board of Trustees, the organization that awards Grammys. She is the daughter of novelty drummer, percussionist and bandleader Spike Jones and his wife, singer Helen Grayco.

Leslie Ann Jones has had an interest in music since her early childhood in the Los Angeles-area TV and music scene. Through her father she was exposed to a wide variety of musical styles. Through her mother, Helen Grayco (who sang with her father's band), she grew to appreciate fine vocalists such as Mel Torme, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand. She was given a Sears Silvertone electric guitar and played in a band starting from when she was fourteen. She played Top 40 hits on guitar and sang background vocals with an all-female band; she arranged music for other people's bands and assembled a PA system. In 1974, Jones served as road manager and live sound mixer for Fanny on their world tour. Jones also made basement recordings for bands on an early Tascam ½" 4-track tape machine. She wanted to be another Peter Asher and produce bands. Her favorite music is big band.

Leslie Ann Jones's first engineering job was at ABC Studios working as a production engineer, making copies of recordings. She worked as an assistant engineer for several years, training with Roy Halee, Reggie Dozier and Barney Perkins until being asked by John Mayall to lead the engineering of his live concert album Lots of People in 1977.