He received his master's degree from Western Michigan University, after which he went on to work for the Detroit News.
[3] While working there, he interviewed such prominent musicians as Miles Davis, Anita Baker, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder.
[4] In 1994, he received a Contributor award for journalism from the International Association of African-American Music.
[3] Vibe, to which Jones had also been a contributor, subsequently stated that he had died of "a heart attack and kidney failure".
The James T. Jones IV Music Scholarship Fund was established in his memory at Howard University,[7] and the International Association of African-American Music renamed one of its awards the James T. Jones IV Journalist Award in his honor.