Makalani Okpara Jones Sr. is a multi-instrumentalist originally from Port Arthur, Texas, United States. He previously lived in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Aside from Port Arthur, Jones has lived in other parts of Texas including Austin, Denton and Pflugerville. He has also lived in different parts of Louisiana, USA including Rapides Parish and Shreveport.

According to Jones, he studied jazz at the University of New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana for five years. He taught music and choir at various middle and high schools but was laid off in 2020 because of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Jones has three sons. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. In 1984, he started playing the trumped and learned to play it at Graham Elementary School in Austin, Texas, according to him.
2. In 2006, he became a professional mariachi, according to him.
3. On February 7, 2019, he became the director of band and choir at Edwin C. Denby High School in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
4. While living in Rapides Parish in April 2020, he regularly played the trumpet at the Walmart parking lot on Monroe Highway in Pineville, Louisiana. He told KALB, “I get a chance to use my music as a prayer.”
5. On July 30, 2020, he and his two sons, then 12 and 10, played trumpets with a tip jar at their feet in front of the Cane River Queen Riverboat in Natchitoches, Louisiana and serenaded passengers as they boarded, the Natchitoches Parish Journal reported.
6. In December 2020, he and his three children lived at the Motel 6-Killeen in Killeen, Texas while performing multiple songs around Killeen in exchange for a tip. He told KXXV, “As a single male father, I’m trying to roll with the punches as best as I can and stand up on my feet and show my kids how to make it any way and be blessed any how.”
7. On August 2, 2022, the Killeen Independent School District hired him. He worked at Alice Douse Elementary School in Killeen as a music teacher.
8. Between October 2022 and December 2022, he allegedly sexually abused at least one Alice Douse Elementary School student.
9. In February 2023, a female Alice Douse Elementary student wrote to school officials and authorities, accusing him of pulling her in a corner, kissing her, unbuttoning her shirt, pulling his pants and rubbing her everywhere.  
10. In March 2023, he left the KISD. He later started working at Hidden Valley Elementary School in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
11. On May 4, 2023, he told WSOC-TV that he fell for a rental scam and may lose his home in Gastonia, North Carolina.
12. On May 16, 2023, the Bell County District Attorney’s Office issued a warrant for his arrest.
13. He was 48 years old when U.S. Marshals arrested him on May 22, 2023. He was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child.