Elvin Jones | |
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 Jones in 1979 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Elvin Ray Jones (1927-09-09)September 9, 1927 Pontiac, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | May 18, 2004(2004-05-18) (aged 76) Englewood, New Jersey, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1948–2004 |
Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of thepost-bop era.[1] Most famously a member ofJohn Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such albums asMy Favorite Things,A Love Supreme,Ascension andLive at Birdland. After 1966, Jones led his own trio, and later larger groups under the nameThe Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. His brothersHank andThad were also celebrated jazz musicians with whom he occasionally recorded.[1] Elvin was inducted into theModern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1995.[2] In hisThe History of Jazz, jazz historian and criticTed Gioia calls Jones "one of the most influential drummers in the history of jazz".[3] He was also ranked at Number 23 onRolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Drummers of All Time".
Elvin Jones was born inPontiac, Michigan,[4] to parents Henry and Olivia Jones, who had moved to Michigan fromVicksburg, Mississippi.[5] His elder brothers were pianistHank Jones and trumpeterThad Jones, both highly regarded musicians.[6] By age two, he said, drums held a special fascination for him. He would watch thecircus parades go past his home as a child, and was particularly excited by themarching band drummers. Following this early passion, Elvin joined his high school's black marching band, where he developed his foundation inrudiments.
Jones served in theUnited States Army from 1946 to 1949.[6] With his mustering-out pay (and an additional $35 borrowed from his sister), Jones purchased his firstdrumset.[7]
Jones began his professional career in 1949 with a short-lived gig in a club onDetroit's Grand River Street.[5] Eventually he went on to play with artists includingBilly Mitchell andWardell Gray. In 1955, after a failed audition for theBenny Goodman band, he found work inNew York City, joiningMiles Davis andCharles Mingus[5] for theirBlue Moods album on Mingus's co-ownedDebut label.[8] During the late 1950s, Jones was a member of theSonny Rollins trio[6] that recorded most of the albumA Night at the Village Vanguard, an album cited as a high point for both Rollins and for 1950s jazz in general.[9][10]
In 1960, he began playing withJohn Coltrane.[4] By 1962, he had become an integral member of the classic John Coltrane Quartet along with bassistJimmy Garrison and pianistMcCoy Tyner.[4] Jones and Coltrane would often play extendedduet passages. This band is widely considered to have redefined "swing" (therhythmic feel of jazz), in much the same way thatLouis Armstrong,Charlie Parker, and others had done during earlier stages of jazz's development. Jones said of that period playing with Coltrane: "Every night when we hit the bandstand—no matter if we'd come five hundred or a thousand miles—the weariness just dropped from us. It was one of the most beautiful things a man can experience. If there is anything like perfect harmony in human relationships, that band was as close as you can come."[5]
Jones stayed with Coltrane until early 1966. By then, Jones was not entirely comfortable with Coltrane's new direction, especially as hispolyrhythmic style clashed with the "multidirectional" approach of the group's second drummer,Rashied Ali. "I couldn't hear what was going on... I felt I just couldn't contribute."[5]
Jones remained active after leaving the Coltrane group, and led several bands in the late 1960s and 1970s that are considered influential groups.[6] Notable among them was a trio formed with saxophonist and multi-instrumentalistJoe Farrell and (ex-Coltrane) bassistJimmy Garrison, with whom he recorded theBlue Note albumsPuttin' It Together andThe Ultimate. Jones recorded extensively for Blue Note under his own name in the late 1960s and early 1970s with groups that featured prominent as well as up and coming musicians. The two-volumeLive at the Lighthouse showcases a 21- and 26-year-oldSteve Grossman andDave Liebman, respectively. Jones also played on many albums of the "modal jazz era", such asThe Real McCoy with McCoy Tyner andSpeak No Evil withWayne Shorter.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Jones performed and recorded with his own group, theElvin Jones Jazz Machine, whose lineup changed through the years.[11] BothSonny Fortune andRavi Coltrane, John Coltrane's son, played saxophone with the Jazz Machine in the early 1990s, appearing together with Jones onIn Europe onEnja Records in 1991. His final recording as a band leader,The Truth: Heard Live at the Blue Note, recorded in 1999 and issued in 2004, featured an enlarged version of his Jazz Machine—Antoine Roney (sax),Robin Eubanks (trombonist),Darren Barrett (trumpet),Carlos McKinney (piano),Gene Perla (bass), and guest saxophonistMichael Brecker.[12] In 1990 and 1992, the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine partnered withWynton Marsalis, performing atThe Bottom Line in New York.[13] Among his last recordings was accompanying his brother, pianist Hank Jones, and bassist Richard Davis on an album titledAutumn Leaves under the name The Great Jazz Trio.[11][14]
Other musicians who made significant contributions to Jones's music during this period were baritone saxophonistPepper Adams, tenor saxophonistsGeorge Coleman andFrank Foster, trumpeterLee Morgan, bassistGene Perla, keyboardistJan Hammer andjazz–world music groupOregon.
In 1969, Jones played drums for beat poetAllen Ginsberg's 1970 LPSongs of Innocence and Experience, a musical adaptation ofWilliam Blake'spoetry collection of the same name.[15]
He appeared as the villain Job Cain in the 1971 musicalWestern filmZachariah,[16] in which he performed a drum solo after winning a saloon gunfight.[16]
Jones, who taught regularly, often took part in clinics, played in schools, and gave free concerts inprisons. His lessons emphasized music history as well as drumming technique. In 2001, Jones was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music fromBerklee College of Music.[17]
Elvin Jones died of heart failure inEnglewood, New Jersey, on May 18, 2004.[18] He was survived by his first wife Shirley, children: Elvin Nathan Jones and Rose-Marie Jones, and his second common-law wife Keiko Okuya.[19]
Jones's sense of timing,polyrhythms,dynamics,timbre, andlegato phrasing helped bring the drumset to the foreground. In a 1970 profile published inLife Magazine,Albert Goldman dubbed Jones "the world's greatest rhythm drummer",[20] and his free-flowing style was a major influence on many leading drummers, includingChristian Vander (Magma),Mitch Mitchell[21] (whomJimi Hendrix called "my Elvin Jones"[22]),Ginger Baker,[23]Bill Bruford,[24]John Densmore (The Doors),Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls andViolent Femmes) (for whom Elvin was his principal inspiration from age 11),[25] Janet Weiss andSteve Hass.[26]
