Billy Jones, the co-founder and proprietor of Baby’s All Right and former booker at Pianos, Sin-é, and extra New York venues, has died. In accordance with a press release from the groups at Child’s All Proper, Funny Bar, and Nightclub 101, Jones died on Saturday morning, June 7, attributable to “a extremely aggressive case of glioblastoma.” He was 45 years outdated.
Jones moved to New York within the early 2000s after falling in love with town’s fast-paced setting and boisterous music scene. Within the ensuing years, he turned his passionate fandom of bands and routine attendance at exhibits right into a job as a booker on the now-defunct East Village venue Sin-é, in addition to Elvis Guesthouse and the Dance. His curatorial skills left a everlasting mark when he opened the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, bar and 280-capacity venue Child’s All Proper, in 2013, with Zachary Mexico. The spot helped revive town’s indie scene, and infrequently secured high-profile artists early of their profession like SZA and and Billie Eilish for intimate gigs.
Along with fostering a welcoming setting for artists and followers alike, Jones typically rallied behind the significance of 18-plus exhibits at venues like Child’s All Proper. “You recognize, there will probably be 10 tremendous good children who’re followers and actually need to be there. For us to exclude them primarily based on age isn’t cool, we need to give them the chance to expertise the music,” he informed Brooklyn Magazine in 2016. “18+ exhibits are enjoyable, the children are actually excited to be there and you may sense it. We do all age brunches. Folks will write to us ‘I actually need to see this band, and my father I’ve CCed has agreed to chaperone me,’ and it’s superior. Households prefer it, children prefer it, it may be for everybody.”
Most lately, Jones and Tom Moore, in partnership with Knitting Manufacturing unit Leisure, opened the brand new venue Night time Membership 101 inside New York’s historic Pyramid Membership. Following a soft launch on the finish of 2024, it opened correctly earlier this yr. It hosts reside performances and DJ units courtesy of indie-rock, jazz, digital, and experimental artists, in addition to artwork exhibits, themed dance nights, and community-focused occasions. Jones and Moore additionally opened, firstly of 2025, the jazz-bar-restaurant Humorous Bar on the Decrease East Aspect of Manhattan.
Quite a few artists and music trade friends have posted tributes in Jones’ honor, together with Cassie Ramone, La Femme’s Alix Brown, and Windser. “When Child’s All Proper opened, there was a sure synergy about it.. It answered the begging query of the place to go after DIY favourite 285 Kent closed. The reply, based on Billy and Co., was to take the like-minded giddy, fever dream curation to a greater area each for the band and viewers,” Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo wrote on Instagram. “It regarded nice, it sounded nice, it IS nice, and CONTINUES to be. An innumerable quantity of bands have minimize their tooth in that area and gone on to do many an excellent musical deed. Numerous my favourite NYC recollections are at Child’s All Proper, Elvis’s Visitor Home, and Pianos; courtesy of Billy. Relaxation in peace, bud.”
The groups at Child’s All Proper, Night time Membership 101, and Humorous Bar shared an extra assertion in tribute to Jones. “He was the most effective to ever do it. We’re holding him within the mild,” Jones’ colleagues wrote. “As his household, ourselves, our employees, and his buddies all take time to mourn this profound loss, we ask that everybody simply try to do what he did day-after-day: share the love of music. There will probably be a memorial held in early July at Child’s All Proper—extra particulars to return. At all times keep in mind: ‘It’s a sense.’”
