Jones 'The Voice' to play Cascais

Possibly the most famous Welshman in the world, Sir Tom Jones, has a slot scheduled as part of the Cool Jazz Festival on July 25th next summer, taking place at the Manuel Possolo Racecourse in Cascais.

The festival, now in its 16th year, also will feature Jamie Cullum and Diana Krall.

Achingly cool at the age of 78, ‘Jones the Voice’ will have no problem at all in entertaining all age groups, from those that remember listening to ‘Delilah’ on their wireless in the black and white days of 1965, to the astonishing success of his collaboration with the Art of Noise with the cover version of Prince’s Kiss, released in 1994 to a new generation of fans.

Jones’s skill in carefully selected duet partners for the album Reload saw the names of the day queuing up to be associated with the legend, including Van Morrison, Simply Red, The Pretenders, Cerys Matthews, Stereophonics, Robbie Williams and Portishead.

Reload became the highest seller of Jones' career, reaching number one in the UK in 1999 and again in 2000. Its biggest single was the collaboration with Mousse T, ‘Sex Bomb,’ which reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart.

Awarded a knighthood in 2006 by a long-term fan, Queen Elizabeth II, Jones released Long Lost Suitcase in 2015, the final album in a trilogy started in 2010.

Sir Thomas John Woodward OBE (born 7 June 1940), has a career that has spanned six decades, from his emergence as a vocalist in the mid-1960s with a string of hits, regular touring, appearances in Las Vegas (1967–2011), and career comebacks - to coaching on The Voice UK.

Jones's powerful voice has been described as a "full-throated, robust baritone" and has enabled him to sell over 100 million records with thirty-six Top 40 hits in the United Kingdom and nineteen in the United States.

Following the election of the Labour’s Harold Wilson as Prime Minister in 1974, Jones became a tax exile and in 1976 he purchased a red-brick mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles, from Dean Martin for $500,000.

Jones sold the house to Nicolas Cage in 1998 for a reported $6.469 million. In 2009, after 35 years in the US, Jones said that he and his wife were planning to move back to the UK.

How Welsh is Jones?

Jones was born Thomas John Woodward, at 57 Kingsland Terrace, Treforest, Pontypridd, in Glamorgan, South Wales.

His parents were Thomas Woodward, a coal miner, and Freda Jones. Three of his grandparents were of English origin: his paternal grandfather, James Woodward, was an ironmonger's haulier from Gloucestershire, and his paternal grandmother, Anne Woodward, was from Wiltshire. His maternal grandfather, Albert Jones, was Welsh, and his maternal grandmother, Ada Jones, was born in Pontypridd, to parents from Somerset and Wiltshire.

Those attending the Cool Jazz Festival next July are in for a memorable treat.

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