A talented ‘octopus’ settles down in Morgan Hill

Framed pictures with global superstars like Eric Clapton and Andrea Bocelli hang neatly on the walls inside the home of musician Polo Jones, nestled back inside an upscale gated community in Morgan Hill. The patio boasts a stunning view of surrounding hills and the town sprawled below, with the occasional deer bounding through the neighborhood.
This is the new home of Jones, a professional bassist and musician who moved to town in August. The 59-year-old with a soft-spoken voice and long braided hair has rocked out with a laundry list of celebrities over his long-spanning career, including household names such as Carlos Santana, Ray Charles, Sting, Miles Davis and Whitney Houston.
Polo began playing professionally at the age of 11, and caught his first big break when he was asked to tour at the age of 14 with Blues legend John Lee Hooker.
“Bruce Springsteen,” he answered, when asked to name the favorite performer he has worked with.
Polo picked up a framed photo of him performing with Springsteen and Jackson Browne while actress Daryl Hannah danced on stage.
“I did some shows with him back in the day, E Street stuff,” Polo reminisced. “He was a lot of fun.”
Polo is no one-trick pony, for that matter. In addition to the bass, he also performs on the drums, guitar and keyboard, among others. In fact, his multi-faceted musical prowess is what earned him the nickname ‘Polo.’
It all stems back to when Polo took the place of Randy Jackson (the professional bassist and former longtime “American Idol” judge) for a San Jose trio band in the ’80’s. Called Holiday of Hands, the group was trying to achieve a band-like sound with only a few people.
“I was working with an Italian producer and drummer named Corrado Rustici,” Polo explained. “To accomplish the band sound we were going for, I learned to play the keyboard with my feet, while playing the bass, singing and also doing manipulations on the sequencer. Corrado nicknamed me Polo – which translates to the word ‘octopus’ in Italian – for doing all of these things at once.”
The name stuck, and Polo has been his musical name ever since.
Born as Paul Jones Jr., Polo grew up in Oakland and was raised by his pianist/singer mother Inez and saxophonist father Paul Sr.
Polo’s parents encouraged their son’s musical aspirations, beginning with his first band in high school called Artichoke Jones.
Being a musician is the only thing that Polo has ever done professionally, but he does recall early hopes of wanting to become an astronaut.
“I didn’t pursue it because I was told by my school counselors that African Americans weren’t considered for those kinds of careers,” he said. “They told me to not waste my time.”
Still, “I don’t think I’d have the guts to take the kinds of risks that astronauts have to take anyways,” he added.
After decades of rocking out in front of crowds of thousands, the veteran performer does recall a few risky experiences while on tour, however.
He remembers flying in a tiny 20-seater plane from Munich, Germany to Sardinia – the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. A licensed pilot since 1986, Polo noticed the modest aircraft wasn’t properly balanced after being packed full with musical instruments and gear. The band made it safely to their destination, but it was a rocky ride, he recalls.
And then there was the time when Polo played a gig with an IV in his arm.
“I was about to do a show in Austria, and I got really light-headed and dizzy. The medics said that I was severely dehydrated and should really go to the hospital, but I didn’t want to let the audience down,” he laughed. “I played with the IV in my arm, and the bag hanging next to my instruments. The crowd loved it.”
Polo owns roughly 45 bass instruments, many of which are one-of-a-kind. During a recent visit to his home, he proudly showed off a black, custom-made human base sitting in his bedroom. Later on, he strummed a new guitar on his patio from Morgan Hill-based Boulder Creek Guitars.
Hanging front and center in Polo’s house represents perhaps his most widely recognizable work: a framed album display commemorating the sale of more than nine million copies of Whitney Houston’s 1992 album “The Bodyguard” – which has since sold millions more. Polo’s musical contributions to the song “I’m Every Woman” helped give it the familiar sounds that so many people know and love.
These days, Polo is the musical director and bassist for Italian rock singer Zucchero Fornaciari. The two first started working together in 1986, and in 2003 Polo took on the role of Fornaciari’s musical director.
Polo moved to Morgan Hill in August after wrapping up a leg of Zucchero’s world tour that lasted for six months. The rock singer’s North American leg will start up next April.
Coming up, Polo is planning a concert at his Morgan Hill home next month with the acclaimed Peppino D’Agostino, whom Polo reveres as “the greatest acoustic guitar player alive.”
D’Agostino has been hailed as “a guitarist’s guitarist” by Acoustic Guitar magazine; “a giant of the acoustic guitar” by the San Diego Reader and a “poet” by the San Francisco Chronicle, according to D’Agostino’s website.
Polo is also working to resurrect a rock-funk band he started in 2010, called Lighthouse For The Blind.
When he’s not collaborating with A-listers or dabbling in one of his myriad projects, Polo is a sound engineer and producer – a role he describes as “a natural evolution of a musician.”
While residing in Morgan Hill, Polo is focusing on artist development with his company, MEMG, and is currently looking for bands or singers in the area to produce. His first love is rock music, but that hasn’t limited him from producing just about every genre out there.
“When I was buying my first house, I considered living in Morgan Hill. I didn’t because I used to think that I wanted to be in the middle of the action, living in a city,” Polo said as he looked out at the picturesque view from his patio. “But now, this is exactly where I want to call home. It’s not too far from cities up here, but it has also got a small town feel.”
“Do you hear that?” he continued.
Polo paused, his light-colored eyes glimmering as he smiled.
“Beautiful silence.”
Visit Polo’s website.