So, Who's Alvin Jones?

So... Who's Elvin Jones?
May 2001

Someone asked me that because on our web site "Schedule of Coming Events" I had listed "Elvin Jones Concert".

Last week Elizabeth and I sat in a rehabbed movie theatre-cum-concert-space in the fourth row looking up at a set of drums commanded by an African-American elder-king. His 73 year old presence in the center of the quartet he called "The Jazz Machine" held the spot light whether it illuminated him or not. I thought back to one Saturday afternoon in the late 50's or early 60's. I had happened into a little club, the Pershing Lounge on the south side of Chicago, where John Coltrane was playing and the only seats available were right in front of the drummer; "Oh no." I thought, "Now we'll be blasted with drum noise and not be able to hear Coltrane!"

The "drum noise" turned out to be a journey by which a guy I had never heard of, one Elvin Jones, transported us all. That afternoon Elvin Jones carried that quartet the way the sea carries a sailboat, never covering, always supporting and always so much a part of it that all the dispirit parts of it became one. That day Elvin Jones changed the nature of jazz drumming for me..just as he has changed it for everyone for all time.

As the evolution of drums in American jazz moved from simple ticky-tacking in the background, through Chick Web and Gene Krupa and Sonny Paine and Louis Belson and Buddy Rich's big band fireworks to the dependable clock like precision of Shelly Mann or Jo Jones or Joe Morello, Elvin Jones took one of those giant steps forward and rather than consistently play under or occasionally over, he began to play alongside soloists. Sometimes he played the melody, sometimes the counterpoint.

Sometimes he underscored it, sometimes bolded it!

Percussive exclamations shouted out; "Wow! Look at that!!"

A stuttering roll on a snare said; "Yes!"

Cymbals never crashed to startle, only to support and proclaim.

Each drum voice spoke in concert with the others and wasn't used to draw attention to the drummer, but to highlight the piece itself. Each spoke of a particular moment in time. Each added a tonal color that enhanced, that lifted up not covered up.

Last week as I sat transfixed I felt tears of joy well up inside me. Tears at a jazz concert? What was this about I wondered?

Well, there was a mix of happiness that I was finally seeing this master of magic again and the sadness that it had been so long;

and then there was the majesty of his being.

I know; that's a big word, majestybut there isn't any better description of Elvin at the drums. He walks in, this shy and beautiful man, and you sense it about him. This man is recognized by those who have seen him as, there is no other way to say it, a king.

I sat there and remembered that first time in Chicago and then a second time almost thirty years later in San Antonio, Texas at a community center. Then the crowd waited in anticipation while a delay on stage caused everybody to get a little antsy in the September heat. Finally, after the last of Elvin's group filed on stage, a ten piece band at that time, he appeared, a tall, dark man with a shy smile. At first he seemed reluctant to speak at all and then, very hesitantly he said a few words about being happy to be there and introduced the group and seemed so ill at ease I wondered if he was out of it. "Stoned!" I thought.

But then, relieved to be done with his leader duties, he moved inside the trap set and it began..his shyness transformed into sureness and he moved like a panther in that world of drums and cymbals, sticks, brushes and mallets; always in charge, a graceful flowing energy..elegant, wonderful.

Frankly I know I can't do much more than fall well short of the mark in attempting to describe what Elvin Jones was that day or any day I have seen him. And each time I have seen him and tried to convey to another what it is he creates I am faced with that problem any word seller has of trying to paint the essence of an experience with a limited pallet.

Like trying to encapsulate a sunset or a child's smile or love.

I am incapable.

I can say this, experiencing him has been the most incredible time I have ever had with music in my life. I know I am not alone in this, Elizabeth said the same thing to someone on the phone just yesterday when she was attempting to describe the evening.

Perhaps if I lived in New York or Philly and went to see him five nights a week at some venue, perhaps then I would lose the awe I hold him in.

But I don't think so. I think I might just go about in a daze wondering about the nature of genius.

So, who is Elvin Jones?

He is the elder. He is the king of the drummers. He is a majestic presence.

But forget all of these words. Find a copy of "The Last Giant, the John Coltrane anthology". (Atlantic R2-71255) On disk two, cut seven you will hear a twenty five minute version of "My Favorite Things." Coltrane recorded that piece many times..but in this particular version, never released before, Elvin Jones sails along beside John Coltrane and it is a magnificent thing to hear and feel.

I have no better words.

Coyote On Coyote - More about Coyote by Dick Prosapio

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