Elvin Jones

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Elvin Jones

| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist

| image = Elvin Jones 1979 1.jpg

| caption = Jones in 1979

| birth_name = Elvin Ray Jones

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1927|09|09}}

| birth_place = Pontiac, Michigan, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2004|05|18|1927|09|09}}

| death_place = Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.

| genre = {{flatlist|

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Musician
bandleader}}

| instrument = {{flatlist|

Drums
percussion}}

| years_active = 1948–2004

| label =

| associated_acts = {{flatlist|

}}

Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era.{{cite web|last=Yanow|first=Scott|url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p6844|pure_url=yes}}|title=Elvin Jones|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=October 19, 2011}} Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such albums as My Favorite Things, A Love Supreme, Ascension and Live at Birdland. After 1966, Jones led his own trio, and later larger groups under the name The Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. His brothers Hank and Thad were also celebrated jazz musicians with whom he occasionally recorded. Elvin was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1995.{{cite web|url=http://www.moderndrummer.com/modern-drummers-readers-poll-archive/#_ |title=Modern Drummer's Readers Poll Archive, 1979–2014|work=Modern Drummer|access-date=August 10, 2015}} In his The History of Jazz, jazz historian and critic Ted Gioia calls Jones "one of the most influential drummers in the history of jazz".{{cite book |last1=Gioia |first1=Ted |title=The history of jazz |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-512653-X |pages=304}} He was also ranked at Number 23 on Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Drummers of All Time".

Early life and education

Elvin Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan, to parents Henry and Olivia Jones, who had moved to Michigan from Vicksburg, Mississippi.{{cite web |last1=Balliett |first1=Whitney |title=A Walk to the Park, Profile (Elvin Jones) |url=https://www.bangthedrumschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ElvinJones.WalkToParl.1968.pdf |website=bangthedrumschool.com |publisher=The New Yorker |access-date=December 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230180516/https://www.bangthedrumschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ElvinJones.WalkToParl.1968.pdf |archive-date=December 30, 2021 |pages=45–70 |date=May 18, 1968 |url-status=live}} His elder brothers were pianist Hank Jones and trumpeter Thad Jones, both highly regarded musicians.{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-580-8|page=230/1}} By age two, he said, drums held a special fascination for him. He would watch the circus parades go past his home as a child, and was particularly excited by the marching band drummers. Following this early passion, Elvin joined his high school's black marching band, where he developed his foundation in rudiments.

Career

= 1946–1949: Military service =

Jones served in the United States Army from 1946 to 1949. With his mustering-out pay (and an additional $35 borrowed from his sister), Jones purchased his first drumset.{{cite news |last=Gross |first=Terry |title=Elvin Jones NPR interview |newspaper=NPR.org |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1905210 |access-date=May 30, 2007}}

=1949–1960: Professional musician beginnings=

Jones began his professional career in 1949 with a short-lived gig in a club on Detroit's Grand River Street. Eventually he went on to play with artists including Billy Mitchell and Wardell Gray. In 1955, after a failed audition for the Benny Goodman band, he found work in New York City, joining Miles Davis and Charles Mingus for their Blue Moods album on Mingus's co-owned Debut label.{{cite web |last1=Werlin |first1=Mark |title=Charles Mingus And Miles Davis: Changing Moods |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/charles-mingus-and-miles-davis-changing-moods-charles-mingus-by-mark-werlin |website=www.allaboutjazz.com |publisher=All About Jazz |access-date=December 30, 2021 |date=March 11, 2017}} During the late 1950s, Jones was a member of the Sonny Rollins trio that recorded most of the album A Night at the Village Vanguard, an album cited as a high point for both Rollins and for 1950s jazz in general.{{cite web | url = http://allmusic-biography.blogspot.com/2010/11/hard-bop-essay-scott-yanow.html | title = Hard Bop (Essay) | access-date = August 24, 2012 | last = Yanow | first = Scott | date = November 2, 2010 | publisher = Allmusic}}Cook, Richard and Brian Morton (2008), The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th edn), Penguin, p. 1233.

=1960–1966: Association with John Coltrane=

In 1960, he began playing with John Coltrane.{{cite book|title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=Virgin Books|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|pages=682–3}} By 1962, he had become an integral member of the classic John Coltrane Quartet along with bassist Jimmy Garrison and pianist McCoy Tyner. Jones and Coltrane would often play extended duet passages. This band is widely considered to have redefined "swing" (the rhythmic feel of jazz), in much the same way that Louis 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."

Jones stayed with Coltrane until early 1966. By then, Jones was not entirely comfortable with Coltrane's new direction, especially as his polyrhythmic 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."

File:Elvin Jones1.jpg, San Francisco, California. April 22, 1980.]]

=Post-Coltrane career=

Jones remained active after leaving the Coltrane group, and led several bands in the late 1960s and 1970s that are considered influential groups. Notable among them was a trio formed with saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Joe Farrell and (ex-Coltrane) bassist Jimmy Garrison, with whom he recorded the Blue Note albums Puttin' It Together and The 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-volume Live at the Lighthouse showcases a 21- and 26-year-old Steve Grossman and Dave Liebman, respectively. Jones also played on many albums of the "modal jazz era", such as The Real McCoy with McCoy Tyner and Speak No Evil with Wayne Shorter.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Jones performed and recorded with his own group, the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine, whose lineup changed through the years.{{cite web |last1=Mattingly |first1=Rick |title=Elvin Jones |url=https://www.pas.org/about/hall-of-fame/elvin-jones |website=PAS.org |publisher=Percussive Arts Society |access-date=December 30, 2021}} Both Sonny Fortune and Ravi Coltrane, John Coltrane's son, played saxophone with the Jazz Machine in the early 1990s, appearing together with Jones on In Europe on Enja 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 saxophonist Michael Brecker.{{cite web |last1=Kelman |first1=John |title=Elvin Jones Jazz Machine: The Truth: Heard Live At The Blue Note |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-truth-heard-live-at-the-blue-note-elvin-jones-half-note-records-review-by-john-kelman |website=www.AllAboutJazz.com |publisher=All About Jazz |access-date=December 30, 2021 |date=October 13, 2004}} In 1990 and 1992, the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine partnered with Wynton Marsalis, performing at The Bottom Line in New York.{{cite web |title=Elvin Jones Jazz Machine with Wynton Marsalis |url=https://wyntonmarsalis.org/ensembles/detail/elvin-jones-jazz-machine-with-wynton-marsalis |website=wyntonmarsalis.org |access-date=December 30, 2021}} Among his last recordings was accompanying his brother, pianist Hank Jones, and bassist Richard Davis on an album titled Autumn Leaves under the name The Great Jazz Trio.{{cite web |title=The Great Jazz Trio - Autumn Leaves |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/8198779-The-Great-Jazz-Trio-Autumn-Leaves |website=www.discogs.com |date=May 18, 2004 |access-date=December 30, 2021 }} Recorded 2002; released 2004.

Other musicians who made significant contributions to Jones's music during this period were baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams, tenor saxophonists George Coleman and Frank Foster, trumpeter Lee Morgan, bassist Gene Perla, keyboardist Jan Hammer and jazz–world music group Oregon.

In 1969, Jones played drums for beat poet Allen Ginsberg's 1970 LP Songs of Innocence and Experience, a musical adaptation of William Blake's poetry collection of the same name.{{cite web|last=Jurek|first=Thom|year=2017|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-complete-songs-of-innocence-and-experience-mw0003043886|title=The Complete Songs of Innocence and Experience - Allen Ginsberg|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=April 28, 2019}}

He appeared as the villain Job Cain in the 1971 musical Western film Zachariah,{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D05E3DE163BE53BBC4D51DFB766838A669EDE|title=Zachariah (1970) Screen: 'Zachariah,' an odd Western|author-link=Roger Greenspun|author=Greenspun, Roger|date=January 25, 1971}} in which he performed a drum solo after winning a saloon gunfight.

Jones, who taught regularly, often took part in clinics, played in schools, and gave free concerts in prisons. His lessons emphasized music history as well as drumming technique. In 2001, Jones was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.{{cite web|url=https://jazztimes.com/news/berklee-honors-rollins-holds-summer-clinics/|title=Berklee Honors Rollins, Holds Summer Clinics|website=Jazztimes.com|access-date=July 21, 2017}}

Death

Elvin Jones died of heart failure in Englewood, New Jersey, on May 18, 2004.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/19/arts/elvin-jones-jazz-drummer-with-coltrane-dies-at-76.html|title=Elvin Jones, Jazz Drummer With Coltrane, Dies at 76|date=May 19, 2004|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=December 4, 2017}} He was survived by his first wife Shirley, children: Elvin Nathan Jones and Rose-Marie Jones, and his second common-law wife Keiko Okuya.{{Cite web |date=2022-12-20 |title=Final Bar: Jazz Obituaries |url=https://downbeat.com/news/detail/final-bar-keiko-okuya-jones-mick-goodrick-david-ornette-cherry-mark-r.-feld |access-date=2024-06-21 |website=downbeat.com |language=en}}

Influence

File:Elvin Jones 1979 3.jpg

Jones's sense of timing, polyrhythms, dynamics, timbre, and legato phrasing helped bring the drumset to the foreground. In a 1970 profile published in Life Magazine, Albert Goldman dubbed Jones "the world's greatest rhythm drummer",Goldman, Albert (February 6, 1970). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1AEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22world%27s+greatest+rhythm+drummer%22&pg=PA12 "Elvin Jones' Kinesthetic Trip: World's Best Rhythm Drummer"]. Life. Retrieved March 15, 2020. and his free-flowing style was a major influence on many leading drummers, including Christian Vander (Magma), Mitch MitchellHerman, Gary (December 1981/January 1982).[https://archive.org/details/modern-drummer-issue-29/page/n15/mode/2up/search/%22elvin+jones+obviously+and+tony+williams%22?q=%22elvin+jones+obviously+and+tony+williams%22 "The Continuing Experience of Mitch Mitchell"]. Modern Drummer. Retrieved March 15, 2020. (whom Jimi Hendrix called "my Elvin Jones"{{cite book | last1 = Heatley | first1 = Michael | last2 = Shapiro | first2 = Harry |author-link = Michael Heatley | title = Jimi Hendrix Gear: The Guitars, Amps & Effects That Revolutionized Rock 'n' Roll | publisher = Voyageur Press | year = 2009 | pages=166 }}), Ginger Baker,Gillin, Beth (January 13, 1968). [http://www.mediafire.com/view/o9runavsu7n12rt "The Homogenized Sound"]. The Camden Courier-Post. Retrieved March 15, 2020. Bill Bruford,{{cite book |last=Stump |first=Paul |title=The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock |date=1997 |publisher=Quartet Books Limited |isbn=0-7043-8036-6 |page=49}} John Densmore (The Doors), Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls and Violent Femmes) (for whom Elvin was his principal inspiration from age 11),{{cite web |last1=Stories |first1=Local |title=Meet Brian Viglione of The Dresden Dolls in Beverly Hills - Voyage LA Magazine {{!}} LA City Guide |date=28 January 2020 |url=http://voyagela.com/interview/meet-brian-viglione-dresden-dolls-musician-producer-beverly-hills/ |access-date=18 February 2020}} Janet Weiss and Steve Hass.Donahue, Mark (July 4, 2003) [https://www.newspapers.com/article/valley-news-mad-6-ravi-coltrane/168718171/ "Soundbites: Mad 6 – Ravi Coltrane"], Valley News. Associated Press. Retrieved March 27, 2025. "Coltrane's skilled, backing group anchors his saxophone. Steve Hass is a tornado of drum rolls and cymbal crashes, resembling Trane's furious drummer, Elvin Jones."

Discography

Filmography

1979 A Different Drummer (Rhapsody)
1996 Elvin Jones: Jazz Machine (VIEW){{cite web|author=Jones, Elvin|url=http://www.view.com/elvin_jones_jazz_machine_dvd.aspx|title=VIEW DVD Listing|publisher=View.com|access-date=October 19, 2011}}
1971 Zachariah, directed by George Englund

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20120525203337/http://www.drummagazine.com/features/post/the-magnificent-life-of-elvin-jones/ Elvin Jones Biography & Interview at Drum]
[http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Elvin_Jones.html Elvin Jones at Drummerworld]
[https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/elvin-jones NEA Jazz Masters]

Category:1927 births

Category:2004 deaths

Category:Musicians from Pontiac, Michigan

Category:African-American drummers

Category:American jazz drummers

Category:Modal jazz drummers

Category:Hard bop drummers

Category:Post-bop drummers

Category:Mainstream jazz drummers

Category:Enja Records artists

Category:Muse Records artists

Category:MPS Records artists