The City of New York dedicated the street outside of Baby’s All Right as Billy Jones Way, honoring the rock club’s deceased co-founder, on October 18.
Baby’s All Right CEO Tom Moore, Councilwoman Jennifer Gutiérrez and others, including members of Jones’ family, paid tribute to William “Billy” Wesley Jones during the ceremony. Blood Orange, Porches, Fcukers, Caveman, Joe Bataan and other musicians performed a free surprise show inside the club after the street-naming unveiling and block party.
Billy Jones launched a 20-year music industry career as the talent buyer for now-defunct East Village music clubs Sin-é, Elvis Guesthouse and The Dance. In 2013, he co-founded Baby’s All Right as an independent music club, restaurant and bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Since its opening, Baby’s All Right served as a pivotal incubator for emerging indie artists. In time, the venue also became the go-to location for intimate performances by established music artists including Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Lorde, Charli xcx and others. Lorde name checked the club in her 2025 song “What Was That,” singing, “When I’m in the blue light, down at Baby’s All Right, I face reality.”
Based in Brooklyn, Jones was a disc jockey with The Lot Radio starting in 2021. In 2023, he opened a record store, Billy’s Record Salon. In 2025, the indie music impresario and his longtime business partner Tom Moore expanded their enterprise by opening two clubs in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Night Club 101 and Funny Bar; both of the clubs continue operating.
“Billy did more for music in New York than what can be put into words. Every fresh-off-the-boat artist or music obsessive who was smart enough to send him a message got a reply, a coffee and, more often than not, something that felt like the beginning of a story,” said Moore during the unveiling ceremony. “When Billy saw that blend of sound and vision, he cheered it on. He knew that this was the most basic principle of show business – that an audience made an idea into an act, and that an act could become part of the big story. Baby’s All Right is the house that his cheer built and where countless stories have started since.”
A medical team diagnosed Jones with an extremely aggressive case of glioblastoma in 2024. Jones fought a 10-month battle against the brain cancer and succumbed on June 7, 2025. He was 45.
All photographs by Caroline Safran, first reported by Manhattan Beat.
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