A 1975 album entitled Birds of the Sea by Billy Jones has become a treasured item among certain DJs and mixers keen on finding the ultimate funky break or sample. The album has fallen into a category known as Northern soul, the north in this case being Holland, where Jones was active on the music scene from the '60s. His ethnic background is African and the previously mentioned album, released on a Dutch subsidiary of Decca, is not the only recorded documentation of Jones. He is a performer whose performances and contacts took him into the Dutch avant-garde as well as the gouda old country's hit parade. His fame remains almost entirely in Holland, despite the efforts of lucky collectors who might find a mildewed Birds of the Sea at an Amsterdam flea market, its cover even soiled by a real live bird of the sea.

Jones' recording career goes back at least a decade before that album. He was a member of the Twinklestars, a vocal group that released a series of singles in Holland in the '60s, many of which charted nationally. Another member of this group was the interesting Surinamese vocalist Oscar Harris, who began twinkling on-stage with the group in 1965 when Jones was already an established part of the constellation. Jones and Harris cut an album of Ballads in the '70s. By this time, Jones had begun working with progressive groups such as Reality and Solat, leading to a collaboration with saxophonist Hans Dulfer. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi